


Change of Fate: Book 2

by Vildtiger



Series: Change of Fate [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Axel is a jerk in this story, Castle Oblivion (Kingdom Hearts), Gen, Nobodies cannot grow a heart, OC- aurora fox, Vanitas Redemption (Kingdom Hearts), darkness is not all evil, mysterious woman - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22264306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vildtiger/pseuds/Vildtiger
Summary: An AU where fate and the future are much more fickle, so easy to change that even those with the gazing eyes- the Foretellers can't always predict the future but have every intention to aim it at their chosen path.A universe where Light can be evil and Darkness might be good, it all comes to ones view on them and how to tackle each emotions those two driving forces allow ones heart to feel.Takes place in Chain of Memories.Riku is struggling to regain control over his life, but it's hard when darkness is involved and has to deal with a heart claiming to be pure darkness. but thanks to this heart, he learns that If reaching out, help can be found and in some very unusual places.Sora is having very strange dreams he never seems to remember, his unique power is affecting people in manners not even they are aware of.
Series: Change of Fate [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593028
Kudos: 7





	1. Guardian of Castle Oblivion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **this is Book 2 of my Change of Fate series. so before you read this one, I highly suggest you read Book 1 and have a decent knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts lore. otherwise, this story will only confuse you.**
> 
> **Book 2 is made after Chain of Memories but has parts of Birth By Sleep in it as well. I will explain down in the notes below of what stays the same or what changes I was unable to put into the story.**
> 
> **enjoy!**

_"Stop looking at me like that! I do not need anyone pity, least of all from a weakling like you!"_

_"I may be weak, and you can hate me all you want, but I will not let go! We are brothers! We are connected, whatever you like it or not!"_

_"Brothers? Heh, well then, brother, I look forward to the day we will meet again."_

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

A portal of darkness appears and from it, three people walk out. All wearing the same garment of a black leather coat, pants, boots, and gloves, only the slight style of the coats and their visible heads makes one able to see the difference from one another. The one in front is a middle-aged man with long blond hair and striking green eyes that has a gleam of a misguided excitement. Behind walk a much younger man with steel-grey hair that is covering the right side of his face, he has an almost stuck expression face of boredom. Still, the aqua-colored eyes are intense, revealing that he's sharply focused on whatever they are doing. The last that walks out from the portal is a very tall, very muscular man with messy ginger hair and so far the only one wielding a weapon, which is a huge ax-sword.

The youngest of the group, whose going by the name of Zexion stops when his sharp sense of smell catches, the scent of a creature that has been causing trouble ever since they discovered this place. This place they have come to call Castle Oblivion. "It knows we're here." He speaks in a soft voice to the largest of the three, his aqua- meet his taller companion's plain-blue eyes. "Be on your guard, Lexaeus." The man going by that name nods quietly, the grip around the weapon tightens.

"Try and keep its pests out from my laboratory this time around." The oldest, Vexen tells Lexaeus in an irritated voice. The larger man does not answer; the only response is a frown of the tone been used on him. Ignoring that, Vexen speeds up his walk to the laboratory, grabs his best made and suiting in size doll, lifts it over to the table. "Do you have the memory, Zexion?" He asks.

Pulling out a card from his coat, on it is a picture of a sea-shell Wayfinder. "Right here," Zexion hands it to Vexen and while the elderly man connects this powerful memory to the doll, he must say, "if this project of yours proves to be a success, there won't be much need of Sora in our plans."

"He still would be an issue." Lexaeus points out before turning back in scanning the hallway for the guardian of this castle. "He took down the Heartless of the superior, and he is the only able to co-exist alongside his Nobody."

Zexion agrees with his large companion's words. "It should be in our best interest continuing our plans to lure him in and make Naminé scatter his memories." He does have an issue with how the superior is going about it. "But if Marluxia is the best for this given task… leaves me quite uncertain."

Vexen snorts but does agree with Zexion's words. "He has no respect for us of the senior staff, the only reason he got the job is due to him, and Larxene were able to defeat this pest." And right as he said it, a known roar echoes through the castle and next, the guardian of the castle appears from a puddle of darkness. This beast has the size of a lion and body structure very much like a cheetah. Its smooth skin is royal blue, with legs and back lighter in tone. Around the stifle, both front and back, grey marking with the front having one spike and the legs on the back have two. It's felinely mixed with a lizard face turns to the three and those blood-red eyes glaring daggers at them. Its spiked tail swinging from side to side in the sign of its irritating by their return.

Lexaeus tense up at the arrival of the creature that bears the same mark of the monsters that attacked Radiant Garden all those years back. He has been fighting this one a few times, and even though he shouldn't, Lexaeus does respect this beast's strength and tenacity of guarding its home. This creature, in a graceful manner, stalks over to them, the black symbol that reveals its connection to the monsters from ten years past is plain to see right on top on its head, only slightly obscured by its jagged, long antennas that seems to work as its ears. Lexaeus lifts his weapon, preparing himself for a tough fight. The creature, clearly recognizing him sneers loudly, its long sharp teeth barred and greatly agitated walks back and forward as if trying to find a weak spot. Then, as if it got blown by a hurricane, the creature charges at him. Lexaeus cannot measure up to its speed and has no chance of stopping this monster from chomping its long teeth right into his arm, trying to make him let go of his weapon through the pain.

But, being a former guard and spent most of his time out on the field, fighting, Lexaeus can endure the pain, and with his free hand, he grabs the creature around the jaws and forces them open. With it off, he hits it with his weapon. The beast gets slammed into the wall of the other side of the room, Lexaeus knows that won't take it down though and right he is, the creature quickly gets back on its feet, roars in anger and comes straight at him again. This seems a bit too predictable for a being Lexaeus knows is smart. Still, he prepares himself for it, and right before it reached his range, it changes direction and instead goes for the two others. _'should've known you fight dirty'_ Lexaeus thinks with a ghost sense of annoyance and as he charged his weapon for an elemental strike. "Zexion!" He calls as an only warning.

Hearing the warning, Zexion looks back and sees the creature come straight at him and the too busy in his work Vexen. He swiftly summons his spellbook and throws up a shield, right in last second for both strikes. The first is the creature's attempt to get them; the next is Lexaeus's attack, which did, fortunately, make the beast turn its attention back to him. The scent of darkness coming from it is getting stronger, though, and that is the warning sign that this room soon will be flooded with its minions. Something that can easily overpower Lexaeus if they continue to agitate this creature. "Hurry Vexen." He tells the older man hard, he might not care about any of them, but his human memories do make him want Lexaeus to survive.

"Brilliance takes time!" Vexen snaps back, irritated by Zexion's retort: "It won't matter if you fade into darkness." Vexen returns back to work, annoyed of having to hurry up but like Zexion, rather not stick around when that pest decides to flood this whole floor with its minions.

Slamming his ax sword so hard onto the creature that it stays down for a moment, though when it gets up again, droplets of its body begin to fall like blood, Lexaeus bares his own teeth of what is going to happen now. These drops of blood turn into smaller visions of the creature, though their antennas are more jagged and less flexible. No sigil can be seen and although they are missing claws and teeth, these minions are still dangerous. Each drop becomes a minion and like Heartless, attacks with no fear for their own life. Lexaeus can easily kill those things but as the creature gets up, he braces himself for the flood.

The creature roars and a tornado of dark air appears around it, out from this, more and more minions appear. Lexaeus continues to strike these weak enemies down, but slowly gets overwhelmed as the flood of them does not cease, they just keep on coming. Five of the flood creatures get onto his back, where they scratch him with their dagger-like front limbs. Lexaeus tries to get them off, but that only gives those at his feet the opening to attack his legs, trying to get him down so the larger creature can go for the killing blow.

The creature never gets that chance, though, for right there, Zexion decides to meddle into the fight. He opens the Lexicon and through it, throws magical meteors at the minions, though these attacks are also harming Lexaeus, Zexion is certain his companion will survive. With the flood creatures gone, Zexion picks another spell and fires ice arrows at the beast. It dodges and goes straight at them, Zexion uses a reflect spell, making the creatures strike backfire and stun it for a moment. Lexaeus uses that to hit it hard with his ax sword, sending it back into a wall of the other side of the room. "Must give it respect for endurance." Zexion remarks when the creature gets back up once again, wounded yes, but apparently more pissed than ready to quit the fight. It strikes with its dark wind attacks, Zexion blocks it with a shield spell and while holding it up as the shield gets bombarded with the wind of darkness, Zexion is starting to feel he's reaching the limit of how much magic he can throw around. "Vexen, I would appreciate it if you hurry it up." He calls, not desperate, but would prefer leaving as he has better things to do than getting wounded fighting this monster.

Ignoring the words of Zexion, Vexen carefully attaches the memory stored inside this card into the puppet, creating it as the core of this artificial heart. It's slow and tricky progress, so the two will have to entertain the guardian of the castle for a while longer. When sure the core is ready, Vexen puts it into the doll, waits, and after a few twitching, the puppet sits up. He grins at the significant success of his proudest work, "Summon the keyblade." He commands it and the keyblade appears. His grin widens, for this is the sign that thanks to his brilliant work, the Organization has gotten another loyal keyblade wielder. Though putting the puppet to work will take time, but in his eyes, that's only a minor inconvenience.

He puts a suitable sized cloak onto the doll and pulls the hood over the empty face, that should fool most in this being a mindless puppet. Not that it matters what others think, this puppet only has to use the keyblade against the Heartless. Vexen grabs the puppet and with it in his arms. He turns to the two others, still busy fighting the creature. "Alright, I'm done, let's get out from here." He calls for them.

"About time," Zexion muses, and Lexaeus throws the furious creature away and swiftly, all three teleports away, leaving the beast snarling inside the destroyed area.

Slowly the guardian calms down, and with a snort of annoyance, it stalks back to the one it has been protecting. On its way back, it does pass a room where a girl with long blond hair, dressed in a snow-white dress, resides. The creature eyes this girl as it walks past her, she is clutching a sketchpad to her chest, staring at the creature in fright. The monster, however, ignores her, this intruder is not a threat, nor one master cares about. So other than a brief glance with its red eyes, it does not pay the girl any mind. Disappearing from sight not long after, leaving the girl alone once again inside Castle Oblivion.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

_A young child is running around the beautiful fields, happy as a clam, the mother, quite young to be one, joins her son in the game. The father, worn by past trials but still trying to keep an optimistic view on things, is putting down the picnic blanket, then goes to pull the food up from the basket._

_It is watching this family from a small distance, calm and still for there's no danger anywhere near. Everything is, for now, peaceful in this often harsh and yet beautiful world._

_The mother picks up their child, and both still laughing, heads over to the father. They all sit down and start eating, the mother- its current master whistle, and it obeys. Joining the family, it lies down beside master, not bothered when the child throws himself over its body, burrowing his tiny face into the royal blue pelt, almost making it look like his messy blond hair is part of its body. The parents laugh, encouraging the child to climb onto it, doing a silly pretend he is riding it. Being mischevious in nature, it leaps forward, throwing the child off, and he starts crying. The father scolds it for this behavior, but it does not care._

_The mother shakes her head to the father, well aware that there's no use to lecture this creature._

_Even if it is bound to this family by its first master, loyal to the very end, there is no point in trying to change who it is. For really, how is one supposed to learn if not getting scratched up once and a while?_

_The mother picks up her still sobbing son, calming him, and while guiding the boy's hand onto its head, the mark is currently hidden in this form. The mother tells her offspring: "One day, this creature will be your guardian. It may be rough on you, but know, it will always want to keep you safe."_

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Intruders, this time on the upper floors, the aura they give off, it is them again. The guardian of the castle growls frustrated that these beings refuse to get the hint that this area is protected. It leaves the room and goes to fight them… again! It appears right where the three intruders reside, letting out a roar as their only warning to get the hell out.

The leader of the three smiles at the arrival of the guardian. "Ah, there you are." And he summons his weapon in shape of a scythe in a swirl of flower petals. The woman behind him gets throwing knives between her fingers. But its focus is on the one it knows is the biggest threat, that body is brimming with Aether magic.

The other man summons a pair of chakrams and asks the two others. "So this is the guardian?" and right there, the lion sized beast runs straight at them. They all leap out of the way, the creature spins around and jumps at the scythe-wielding one, forcing him to block. Otherwise, his face would've been chomped on.

The woman throws her knives at it, piercing its hide and it lets go of the scythe handle when she makes electricity course through the weapons. It roars in pain, shoots her a glare before turning back to its current victim. The woman laughs at this. "Aw, it really likes you, Marluxia."

The one going by that name quirks a weak smile. "Funny," he says, puts weight into his weapon and the second the guardian shifts its balance, he lashes the scythe's blade at it. The creature hisses from the slash but is far from done playing with them. "Axel, now!" He commands the chakrams wielding man.

Axel sets his weapons on fire, throws them at the floor, and a ring of fire surrounds the beast. The guardian spins around itself, clearly searching for a way out. When not finding one, it proves to be quite smart as its clawed paws get surrounded by a wind of darkness, slams them to the floor, and that dark wind extinguishes the fire. Well, color him impressed. Axel laughs. "Aren't you a smart one?" The creature turns to him, glaring with those blood-red eyes. Its attention does get shifted when the woman fires a bolt of lighting at it.

The guardian goes after the woman named Larxene and it manages to catch her leg and throws her onto the floor, but before the beast can start tearing her to shreds with those claws. Axel distracts it by throwing his weapons at its face, giving Larxene the chance to kick the beast off and gets away from its claws.

Pissed at the escape of its prey, the guardian throws itself at the one wielding fire, throwing them both to the floor, the creature pins this intruder down by pressing its jaws against the round weapons. He struggles but soon it will get close enough to— hold up… something about this one… this person has a bond to— a sharp pain over the back, snaps the creature out from its thoughts. It turns snarling to the leader of this group. Ignoring the man, the guardian goes for that one, but more knives of electricity stun it for a moment, long enough for the leader to swing his weapon in rapid slashes over its body. The creature roars in pain, more so when each of these slashes has a draining poison effect. It drops to the ground, yet before they can send it back to oblivion. It disappears into a pool of darkness.

"It shouldn't give us further problems in the near future." Marluxia points out and dismisses his weapon in a wave of petals. Doubt it will perish, but those venom strikes will keep it down for some time, which should be plenty in what plans he has. Marluxia turns around to the two comrades of his. "Now, with the guardian taken care of, let us begin our work with the keyblade chosen one." Axel simply nods, by the looks of it, curious about the guardian and his partner in crime; Larxene is grinning devilishly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **this whole thing happens right before Marluxia will lure Sora and co to Castle Oblivion. this chapter is mostly an introduction to my only OC in this whole story, for now, called the Guardian of Castle Oblivion, though will in future books be called another name.**
> 
> **most of this story will follow Riku as that's where most changes will occur but I will once and a while writing about Sora.**  
>  the scene of Lexaeus having trouble with the Guardian 


	2. Heart of Darkness

_'Where am I… I can't feel anything… what's going on?'_

_"Heh heh, wow, you really walked in his footsteps, don't you?"_

Huh?!

Eyelids snap wide open, revealing a pair of turquoise blue eyes. It takes a moment to comprehend the surroundings. When he when does, he takes notice that although he can see his own muscular body, dressed in a yellow vest that is black around the sides and in the lines that cross the chest, and from how his legs are positioned, dressed in blue pants are, it's clear he is somehow floating in midair. Shaking one of his silver bangs away from his eyes, no matter how much he looks around. There's no sense of what this… void is. It does feel like darkness, but not the extreme pressure the threatens to destroy one's heart that was the realm of darkness— hold up, the last thing he remembers— he was trapped in there with the king- the door—

_"That's right, you shut your only escape, trapped yourself into the darkness."_

That voice again, it sounds so familiar, yet it's so cold and dark, it makes no sense. "Who are you?"

_"Me? I am the darkness in someone's heart. You could say, in this very moment, I am your darkness."_

"My darkness?"

_"That's right, the darkness in your heart is strong. You could gain so much if you just let it out."_

Yeah, that's not going to happen. Almost lost himself after having given in to the darkness thanks to Maleficent. "I'll think I pass," he tells the voice, checking the area again, but only the void can be seen. "What is this place?"

_"Like I'd know. Been here since my banishment, and with my body gone; I cannot leave."_

He notices the hint of desperation in the voice, and it gives him a horrible feeling. "Not a chance, being possessed once is enough for me."

The voice laughs mockingly, _"I wasn't asking for your body idiot. Already have my eyes on one, but certain people are messing that up."_ It goes quiet for a moment before it speaks again. _"Tell you what, I will help you get out if; you clean the house."_

This voice really expects him to make such a deal? "And what if I say no? Are you going to let me stay in here forever?"

_"Maybe not forever, only for so long that your friend will lose his sense of self and become their plaything."_

"What?! You mean Sora is here?!"

_"Only one way to find out."_

Ugh… sounds like he really does not have a choice… "Fine, but you better not try anything."

_"As long as you clear the house, I don't care what you will do."_ A card appears before him, on it is a picture of Hollow Bastion. _"Take it. It will lead you out from this place and one step closer to your idiot friend."_ As he reaches out for the card, the voice continues smugly, _"Someone else was trying to reach you, but in darkness, I am the strongest one."_

"So this card comes from that other person?" He asks and takes the card. The whole place gets replaced with a known sight of the ruins that is Hollow Bastion, Riku finds himself inside the room Maleficent gave him. Here, the voice speaks.

_"He created that card out from your memories, I sense this is where the darkness I now reside was welcomed into your heart. Must've been such a power trip."_

He sneers at what the voice said, enraged even but not sure if it is only at the voice, he is angry at. "Yeah, but it wasn't worth it." He storms out from the room, glaring at the voice laughing mockingly at him.

_"Oh, that's right. You think friendship is important. That it gives you strength, but tell me this, Riku."_

Someone grabs him from behind in a chokehold, Riku struggles but whoever is holding him is so much stronger. His eyes widened when the same voice, now right behind him, whispers into his ear. "Where were your friends when you were abandoned in the darkness?" The grip tightens, "Darkness gave you the strength to survive."

He did give into the darkness, he wanted strength and got it but… he can't take drowning in it anymore! Riku summons his weapon, a blade forged out of darkness. "No!" He strikes out but hits nothing, confused Riku searches for the person who grabbed him from behind. "Where are you? Show yourself!"

_"If you wish to find me, look into the darkness of your heart."_

Scared and enraged, Riku runs outside of the room, deeper into the castle, and everywhere he goes, Heartless is all he encountered. Defeating a Heartless, a voice, not the one from the void, but sounding much older, speaks.

_"This castle is made out from your memories."_

"Who's there?!" Riku demands.

The voice ignores his question and instead asks him, _"Do you wish to see your friends?"_

"Of course I do!" He exclaims back, and yet, deep down, he's afraid to face them again after what he did to them…

_"But you cast them aside."_ This new voice points out. _"You dreamt of the outside world, you allowed the darkness into your world. Abandoned family, friends, home— everything behind— all in pursuit of power."_

_"Pretty good deal if you ask me, who needs those things anyway."_ the voice that claims to be the darkness of his heart remarks.

Both of those voices, they are infuriating and yet Riku cannot shake the dread that is the truth of what they are saying. He did cast people away, all in search of power. He thought it was to protect; instead, he used it to hurt his friends, but… "I cast away the darkness too!" He calls to the other voice, ignoring the mocking laughter of the one inside the darkness of his heart.

_"And what do you have to show for it?"_ The older sounding voice asks, _"First your home, then the darkness. Your heart only knows how to cast away."_

_"Darkness will always be there, you can't just get rid of it."_ The voice inside his darkness laughs, adding somewhat smugly. _"People on the other hand: Not that you needed those people any—"_

"Shut up!" He shouts at both voices and runs off, but like the voices, darkness does not let go that easily… running further inside this empty castle, Riku encounters the last one he wants to meet: Maleficent. "How are you still alive?!" He exclaims, the witch of darkness got utterly destroyed by Sora and the darkness Ansem, back then possessing his body, forced into her heart.

Maleficent smirks. "Ah, my dear boy, like this very castle." She gestures around, "I am, but a more figment of your memory." Is this place created by his memory? How's that possible?

It does not matter really, what does is the fact: "Of all the people I could run into, it had to be you." Riku sneers, thinking he instead wants to be lonely that speaking to Maleficent.

"But of course. After all, your heart is seeped in darkness." The witch points out, "You can only see those who exist in that same darkness." Even if it's a repeat of what the two voices said, it still stings just as much.

_"You wanted darkness and now you want nothing to do with it? Grow up already."_

_'I didn't ask for your opinion!'_ He snaps back to the voice inside his heart, and although he hates to admit it, the voice does have a point. He's been acting childish, wanting something he, obviously, will do more harm than good. "True, there was a time I wanted you around, where I surrendered my heart to the dark thoughts I held towards Sora." He admits, both to the figment of the witch but also to himself. He's mature enough to acknowledge that, and more than smart enough to see. "Never again," he eyes Maleficent. "you and your darkness have nothing to offer, and if I'm stuck seeing people of the dark…" He summons his weapon, "Then I'll take you out! One by one!"

Riku feels as if he's boiling from the inside, but it's not his rage, it's the one claiming to be his darkness.

He snaps away from this sudden and intense emotions from the voice of darkness, eyeing Maleficent when green flames surround her, changing her form. "Then you mustn't forget to destroy yourself!" She transformed into a huge black dragon. She unleashes the dark fire at him, Riku dodges away, and with a single slash, the memory of her fades away.

Watching the green flames remove this memory from this place. "That's fine by me," He gave in to the darkness because he was weak, and so that makes him his own enemy.

Riku leaves the room and is glad that no voice is breaking the for once blissful silence, well aware that soon, one of them will throw the ice water that is the reality that he gave into the darkness, and it won't probably ever let go of him.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

_The recreation wasn't pleasured, it was excruciating but better than being stuck in oblivion. At first, everything was hazy, then slowly, the haze disappeared as the world got into focus. Its mind putting itself together and right when it does, the newly created creature realizes that its master needs it. It struggles onto its feet, staggers before setting into a clumsy run. A light beam almost hits and would've thrown it back into oblivion, but luck was on its side and continued to be so as it ran over to master and tried to protect him from the going haywire weapon. It almost got toppled over when the weapon created a shockwave. Still, it stuck fiercely to master's side, and when the shockwaves turned more potent that its small body could withstand, a power overtook it and with darkness, transformed into its bigger and stronger shape. It grabbed master's current metal clothing by the jaws and dug its claws deep into the ground, keeping master in place while trying to protect him against the shattering weapon._

_When the largest of the shockwaves finally subsided, it collapsed besides master and reverted back into its weaker and smaller form. Noticing someone approaching, but sensing that it is one master consider a friend, it allows the other person to approach. She is wary of it though, tries to get it off, but it refuses and becomes very agitated by the attempt, but is too weak to take its bigger form._

_She fortunately stops, hesitates, then lifts both it and master up, taking both away from this dreadful area._

_She and one other that master also sees as friends bring master to a place. It does not understand the words spoken, not yet clear enough in the head for that. All it knows that she is sad, and master gives the sense of being lost._

_The creature followed the woman with master on its back, letting her bring them to a realm that felt to be in-between, a place where light and darkness are equal. The creature hums in this sense, for it is something it is seeking but cannot gain unless master seeks it. The woman glances back to it, says something, but the words still do not make sense. It merely continues to follow her into this destroyed place, hesitant but does allow her to take master and put him onto a chair. It takes the smaller form, jumps onto the chair as well, and lies down on his lap. The woman smiles, then with the keyblade, transforms the place. The creature growls from sensing that this place now has gotten closer to oblivion, a place it does not like of returning back to. The woman appears, speaks soft words to master, before turning to the creature._

_"Keep him safe for me."_

_These words it understood, took it a bit off guard, but knowing that master is important for this woman, the creature nods and curls together on master's lap. The woman leaves, and the creature lies with master like this for a very, very long time. Waiting for something to change, whatever it might be._

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Up on the upper floors, the friend of Riku, a one year younger boy with spiky brown hair and ocean blue eyes, wielding a mighty weapon named the keyblade. Unaware that this power wasn't really what made him so special but the heart residing inside of him, he did not know that his greatest strength, forming connections to others, right that very moment he stepped into the castle, was used as a powerful weakness.

"I remember!" Sora exclaims at the memory that has popped into his mind, one that felt so real but was just as fake as all the people he saw inside the rooms that took shape after one's memory. "There was another girl on the island."

His two comrades, the magician Donald Duck and the knight Goofy, both stop in surprise of his sudden outburst, Donald is the one who speaks for both of them. "What do you mean? Does it mean you remember something?"

Sora nods, "Yeah, I was thinking about home. Riku and I returning together to the island and how happy Kairi will be." The memory is very hazy, hard to get a grasp on, but Sora takes it was because he was so young when it happened. "I remember there was another girl. She was quiet, used to draw a lot, but she moved away when I was very little." He wonders what became of her?

The chronicler of the trio, a cricket named Jiminy jumps up onto Sora's shoulder, musing to himself of what these new people in black spoke about. "Hm, I think what the man at the entrance meant: to gain is to lose, to lose is the gain."

"So… you're saying that with what I am forgetting, those I have forgotten will return?" Sora asks, Jiminy nods but the cricket does look quite unsure about this whole situation. Sora admits that he too does not fancy losing his memory of the friends he made throughout his travels, but he does not want to forget about this long lost friend either.

"What's this girl's name?" Donald asks.

But Sora doesn't actually remember. "I don't know…" but he thinks that maybe, "if we continue ahead, I'll probably remember." He suggests turning to the long white hallway that will lead to the next memory room.

If Sora is starting to remember this long lost friend, that does make Goofy wonder, "Will we remember something we've forgotten too?" Donald can only shrug, and by the suggestion of Sora, they continue forward. Unaware that by each room, more chains that keep their memory will be broken and lose a bit more of themselves in progress.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

_The son got chosen to wield a keyblade, and thus the guardian shift its undying loyalty from the mother to the boy. Going to stand by the boy's side as the teacher of the boy takes him away to be trained as a guardian of the worlds._

_The boy was very sad to leave home and everyone behind, but found comfort in his mother's pet that was said to be part of his heart now. The boy wasn't sure what that meant, only that a special bond was made between him and this creature, giving him a sense of understanding to a creature he otherwise only saw as his mother's pet._

_The teacher started teaching the boy how to wield the keyblade, the training is tough and often very challenging. The boy, having no wish in disappointing his master nor the expectation his mother have about their family legacy, the boy endured the harsh training. Even if he many nights was crying from the bruises and heartache from the coldness his teacher only gave him. The boy missed his home, his parents, and the few friends he had, but the master refused him to go home and visit them. The training to become a keyblade wielder was more important. It was greatly frustrating and he was so lonely. Many times he wanted to lash out but was too scared to disobey his master, so he quietly endured._

_The only comfort the boy found in this new chapter of his life is his guardian. The creature offered him the warmth he greatly longed for, and when master got too hard on him, his mother's pet would step in and be more than ready to pick a fight with the old man. His master commended the boy for controlling his guardian, but the boy did not know how to do that. Not even sure if anyone could control Aether, and to be honest, he has no wish in doing that to his now only friend._

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Sora jerked, waking from his nap inside this seemly endless castle. The dream is long forgotten, and only the sense of something inside the castle is here, waiting. He wonders if they are the memories of this girl?

Getting his two friends up, they move out. Donald and Goofy ask if he remembers more, but other than this sense that something important is inside this castle: "Nope, not a clue." He admits and it is a bit frustrating but figures he will remember it at some—

"My my.. that kid would be so sad if she heard you have forgotten about her." A female voice speaks mockingly, further down the white hall, a woman, like the one from the entrance and the one named Axel, dressed in a black coat. She smiles, but it's far from friendly. It's a smile of one feeling superior over another.

Sora is still a bit confused about these people's malicious behavior towards him. During his first journey, in search of his friends, he encountered one dressed in the same black coat, he cannot recall the name anymore, but Sora does remember that this hooded figure was quite friendly.

"You're working with Axel?!" Donald demands an answer.

The woman giggles devilishly, "That's right. I'm Larxene." She introduces herself. "So, are you enjoying your stay at the castle?" not even waiting for an answer, she continues, "It must be nice, the useless memories are being sifted nice and neat away, and the true memories sleeping in your heart are brought back."

"True memories?" Sora asks a bit confused about this woman's words.

"Although… it seems that you still forgot the most important thing here." Larxene muses and does a mocking act of being in dismal that Sora does not remember. "When that poor girl hears that you've forgotten her, why… it will break her heart."

Wait a minute, when Larxene tells her? "She's… here in the castle?" Sora asks slowly.

The woman smirks, "You got it," and much to his horror, she straight out tells him. "because we the villains are keeping her deep within this castle." Is she saying that she, the guy named Axel, and that other one have been imprisoning his lost friend inside this castle for who knows how long? "Since you're the hero, you will have to save her, you know?" Electricity surrounds Larxene's hands, and next second, she throws several knives at them. Two of the knives barely missed him, two pieced the hats of Donald and Goofy, making the two freeze up in shock of that close of a call.

Before Sora can even think of returning the attack, Larxene kicks him hard in the chest, throwing him to the floor. She laughed at him, really pissed Sora off, but before he can call her any names, the woman points at something on the floor. He follows her hand and to his surprise, a starfish trinket is lying there. Sora is suddenly very confused, he does not recall to have been carrying on such a trinket.

"Oh my, what's this? You have even forgotten the little trinket she gave you?" Sora freezes up, he does recall be given a trinket but something about that shape, it feels wrong. The woman's voice breaks that train of thoughts. "Look!" she points at the trinket, he stares at it again. "Try and remember." He does, but… "Did someone give it to you,"

Yes, but the shape… suddenly Sora recalls something, a blond girl, always drawing. She was so shy, and she… she gave him that starfish trinket.

"Na…mi…né…" Sora blinks at the name that has popped into his mind. "Naminé…?"

Larxene smirks widen, the chains around Sora has tightened. "That's right. That kid gave you that cheap charm," and even if she can give him the next card to move further inside and leave, she wants to play with this new toy just a bit further. "to forget even her name, oh how heartless you are." She grabs the trinket. "I'll think you won't be needing this trinket."

No! He can't let her destroy Naminé charm! "Stop it!" He whacks the starfish trinket out from Larxene's hand by the keyblade and catching it, Sora tells the woman hard. "Naminé gave this to me! It's very important!"

Waving her hand from getting whacked by the keyblade, that pissed her off and for that. "Don't make me laugh." Larxene summons her knives, "You didn't even remember her five minutes ago!" She throws the knives at him, throwing the brat back onto the floor. She steps over and points her knives at his neck. "It's irritating that you don't have a clue of what's important to you!" She would've left him with several nasty cuts, but Sora somehow succeeds in blocking her attacks, allowing the two other fools to hit her. Far from severely wounded but thinking that she has tormented him enough, Larxene throws the card to Sora. "Use this to continue one; don't keep her waiting Sora," and she teleports away.

"Wait!" Sora calls, but the woman is long gone before he gets back on his feet. He's angry, not only at this jerk woman but of all people, Larxene was the one who helped him… to remember Naminé.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Most of the memory worlds are like in the games, through every time Sora takes a rest, he will get those flashbacks, but it's not his heart that will remember.**
> 
> **The interactions between the Organization members are also the same, hence why I didn't include them.**


	3. Destined paths

_Clutching his most prized object, a book that held pages upon pages of spells, he trots away from the laboratory, so to read it in peace. Not that he dislikes doing research about the heart, it's a fascinating subject, but after the disappearing of their ruler– who, according to Even had gone mad and they were forced to banish him… things haven't been the same anymore since that. The experiments have become disturbing; people in their tests are really getting hurt and lately, more of those monsters called the Heartless are around. He can sense something terrible is going to happen, but… He does not voice his thoughts about it to the others, though. Not wanting to be excluded from his new family, less so when he has been told that these are essential experiments._

_Aeleus has always put his wellbeing first, allowed him to leave the experiments, and do one of the few things he still enjoys after the loss of his parents and banishment of the king ruler— besides working together with Even in the lap._

_It is studying magic._

_Ever since that he got this book—his Arcanum, he has been deeply fascinated by the arcane art and been studying hard on the subject of magic. Though the research of the Heartless has made this hoppy of his a rarity to be indulged into. So he has no wish in wasting time now he finally has the chance._

_He takes a seat inside his little corner of the library and begins to flip through the pages, many he's close to having memorized._

_Fingers brushing over the many spells, his heart eager to try them out, though his magic level won't yet allow him. But finding one he can do and wants to test this idea of his. He activates that spell, and with a wave of his hand, small lights fly over his head, making it look like shooting stars._

_They are harmless in this size, but if he really wanted, these shooting stars can become a devastating attack. That's why this spell is one of his favorites. It gives him a sense of control he has been lacking since his parents passing._

_A strange sound makes him turn away from the small shooting star show but sees no one in the library. Then to flinch when a book falls right onto his head. Caressing the now sour spot, he looks up and sees that fox again. It's tough to forget about this yellow fox, having collar– even the tail made out of a rainbow aurora light. He titles his head, and it copies his action._

_He titles his head the other way, and this mystical fox with the aurora tail and scarf does the same. Curiously, he casts an ice spell, one Even taught him back when his parents friend still could find time for him._

_The fox waves its tail, and a small blizzard surrounds his ice shards, making quite the display._

_He stares in awe at the sight, only when the combined spells fade, he realizes the fox has jumped down beside him. He jumps back, ready to cast a spell at the fox in case it decides to attack. The fox lies down, watching him with those creepy blue eyes, but the shape of those eyes is friendly. They remind him of his mother's eyes._

_Clutching the book, he slowly approaches the fox, hesitates, but puts a hand onto its head. The fox very carefully gets up and wraps its tail around him, being engulfed in that tail, it makes him think of the times his father would hug him in such a manner._

_Grief strikes him, and he seeks comfort at the fox, crying at the reminder that he is an orphan and the friend of his parents… is too busy messing with someone else's heart than to have his attention on him._

_He does not blame Even, the experiments are essential but… he wishes Even would pay him some attention now and then… he is not used to be ignored like this..._

_the fox lets him cry into its yellow fur, humming a soothing tone._

_The boy thinks he fell asleep, for when he opened his eyes, he is not lying up against a fox but being held by a young-looking woman with short soft-berry hair and those rose-colored eyes are big, making her look younger than she probably is and that gaze seems to draw him in. This woman, dressed in a multi-colored dress, smiles down to him and his fears go away in an instant._

_She waves her hand over his chest, he jerks from the strange sense, as if someone just dropped warm water onto the spot. "If you ever get lost, I will be able to find and put you somewhere safe." She told him and confused, he removes his eyes from his chest and up to her. The woman merely smiles brushes her slender fingers over his forehead, it feels nice and comforting. He decides not to question her words and simply enjoy a moment of peace before the others going to need him again._

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Leaving yet another empty memory world, walking down the white halls, Riku notices something, a smell. "Something smells… funny…"

_"Must've been the trash you ate."_ The voice remarks snarky back, so far his only companion among the many Heartless and villains inside each world of memories.

Riku glares, he's getting quite sick of that one. "Didn't I tell you to shut it?" He asks, annoyed that the voice inside his darkness– keeps giving him attitude. Well, at least the voice hasn't pulled off any other stunts as it did in the first memory world. "and no, this isn't like any kind of food. It's…" Riku tracks down the scent, it's coming from his skin, then it hit him. "Darkness, it's the scent of darkness."

_"You can smell… darkness?"_ The voice asks, a bit dumbfounded. Silence and it asks, _"How's it smells like?"_

For some reason, Riku decides to be a bit snarky himself. "Oh, it's because you're wondering if you stink? Yeah, darkness stinks worse than any trash." The voice did not like that.

_"Don't mess with me! Or I will strangle you in the next memory room!"_

Riku laughs, not sure why for that voice didn't sound it was messing around, but maybe it's because this is the first time he got under this guy's skin. "Oh, did I hit a soft spot?" He mocks the voice. Now it's his turn to torment this one after been dealing with this one crap since he came here. "Sorry, but darkness stinks, and since you're claiming to be darkness, then so will you. No wonder why you were thrown away in that place." Much to his shock, a person appears, dressed very much like how he would back when he used his darkness, except this uniform is blood red and face obscured by a round mask.

"You really shouldn't have said that." and the masked sends Riku flying through the hallway, slamming into the door by that ball of darkness. The person disappears after that, only able to hold a form for so long.

Maybe he really shouldn't taunt someone who literarily lives inside the darkness. That blast was very powerful, but, from how that one reacted. Well, something tells Riku this other, and older boy (if the size was an indication) has issues like him. "Why do I get the feeling you and I have more things in common than I like to admit?" Riku asks mostly himself and struggles back onto his feet, that ball of darkness did quite the damage on him, but he will survive.

_"We have nothing in common!"_ The voice snaps back, still aggravated from his taunting. _"You are weak, a chicken and I am strong. I fear nothing!"_

Riku does not reply but does note himself to pay better attention to this person. He begins to walk again, but stops when a very welcoming voice calls: "Riku, can you hear me?"

"Your majesty? Is that you?" Riku calls relieved to finally hear a friendly voice, a light appears and from it, the small mouse king takes shape. Riku smiles, but the joy quickly evaporates when he realizes that he can see right through the king. "What happened? I can see… right through you."

"Funny huh?" The king- Mickey checks his transparent self out, explaining, "I can only send a bit of my power to this place."

_"What is it with all of his 'friends' in coming and intrude on this place?"_

This catches Riku's attention, who is this person the voice is talking about? By the sounds of it, whoever it is, consider Mickey as a friend. Can't ask the king about it, will make him sound crazy.

"Riku?"

"Oh, sorry, got a lot on my mind." Riku apologizes and does recall he heard the king ask for a request, but not what it was about. "You asked about a request."

Mickey nods, "That's right, my request; even if the darkness holds you, donot let go of who you are." The small king frowns seriously for a moment while speaking, "you have got to fight the darkness inside you! It won't be easy to do, I know. but even in the darkest darkness, there's always a little bit of light."

_"Bla bla bla, will he shut up already?_

Close to mentally snap back at the voice to shut the hell up, but in last second takes notice that there was resentment in the voice. Why, Riku has no idea but does notes this down for future reference about this darkness guy.

"Please don't give up. Believe in the light." Mickey smiles up to Riku, seemly unaware of his brief shift of focus. "That's a request from my heart. I'll find a way to reach you, I promise." He says, touching his chest and offers him a hand.

Riku smiles, appreciates the small king's tenacity of wanting to get here and stand by his side. He tries to take Mickey's hand, but it went right through.

Mickey didn't seem to mind and tells him optimistic, "Don't worry. We shook hands in our hearts. We're connected, you and me."

"Guess we are." Riku smiles and the small king disappears. He then moves on, curious when the voice speaks irritated.

_"How can you two be so stupid? There's no real connection if you do not share any true link with someone."_

"What makes you say that?" Riku asks, he has taken notice that the whole talk with the king and his taunting beforehand has left the voice quite… gloomy.

_"What is there to link you and him together other than a measly promise?— and don't you dare say it's friendship."_

Huh, now that the voice mentioned it. Riku guesses he and the king are friends. Never thought of it like that back when they together walked through the realm of darkness. But back to this subject, "I take you don't have any friends."

_"Don't need anything that only will become a weakness. I sure hell proved that point when I fought my brother and used his friends to get him to leave the safety of his little world."_

Riku does not reply; otherwise he might say something that pisses this very aggressive guy off. This guy sure lives up to being darkness from how proudly he spoke about that, and unfortunately, Riku can see a bit of himself in this one. He threw his friends away, thought Sora wouldn't be worth his time, and gave into the darkness in seek of power. So arrogant he didn't listen to his friend's warnings, and who knows, maybe he could've become like this voice. Nothing than the darkness to keep one company.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

With the elimination of Vexen, Marluxia and Larxene have welcomed him into their little clan of traitors, exactly as planned. Axel is now ready to do his actual part, and that is starting with Naminé. He walks over to where the girl is sitting, she looks quite heartbroken about what Marluxia and Larxene have made her do. Not that he feels any sympathy for her, it's not like he can anyways.

Only that through her, he can excel in their plan. "Sora is only looking forward to seeing you." The girl drops her head, the folded hands clench a bit further around one another. Axel can only guess what she is feeling, it's getting hard to remember certain emotions nowadays. "Only you can save him." He continues calmly and glances at the door. "It's quite the pity, no one is around to keep watch." He hears a faint shuffle from the girl, but he does not move to look at her. Instead, Axel walks over to the orb that shows what is going on inside the castle. A bit more shuffling, till finally, running footsteps.

"Just make it count," and when the door closes, he smiles, "because if you don't, it won't be very interesting at all." And he starts to laugh, does stop fairly quickly, surprised that he actually did. How can that be? The cold emptiness is still there, and yet this sense is familiar. "Huh, you guys are really something else." Axel smirks.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Everything is so wrong, why can't he remember her? He knows it's one of his most precious memory, so why… why can he only grasp ever so slightly her face and nothing else? "Why can't I remember?" Sora asks Naminé, one he thought not long ago was the one most important to him, only to be revealed that she isn't. That she wasn't even supposed to be part of his memory.

But before Naminé can explain what she has done to Sora's memories, the replica of Riku interrupts, first calling Sora out for messing everything up, and then claim aggressively. "You're not the one who's meant to protect Naminé. It's supposed to be me!" He steals the charm Sora got from Kairi, and right when he's about to destroy it:

"Stop!" Naminé cries, her magic over memories lashed out and struck the poor replica so hard that… that she think she shattered his heart. The replica falls to the floor, glassy-eyed and unmoving. Sora didn't know that this isn't really his friend, and he has every right in blaming her for this action, for Naminé is horrified that she has broken the replica, all he did was wanting to protect her.

A hand on Naminé trembling shoulders, far from welcoming when the voice of Larxene says amused, "Oh my, you broke its heart." Naminé freezes up and barely heard the next words of this woman: "That's a pretty cruel thing to do."

Turning to the blond girl, Sora asks her slowly, "Did you… do this?"

Larxene starts laughing, cruel and truly insulting for this kind of situation, and as she finishes, the woman explains, still greatly amused. "What's this? and here I thought you told him everything." Glancing to the girl, still standing on the same spot with the best face of regret she has ever seen, it only amuses Larxene more. "I figured it was because you didn't want Sora to hate you."

"What happed to Riku?!" Sora demands, confused, but mostly scared of the wellbeing towards one he still thought is his best friend.

"Dh, don't make a fuss about that one," Larxene waves towards the replica. "The real Riku hasn't been around at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think I'm just gonna say it?" Larxene smirks to the boy, "That's too easy!"

But Sora is not in the mood for this. "Quit the games!" and charges in, but all that got him is a kick to the chest.

"Alright, have it your way." Larxene smirks down to the boy. "I know it'll kill you to hear this, but I think I can live with that." Nodding to the replica, "That thing lying there is just a puppet that Vexen made as an experiment. And like this little toy;" Larxene turns over to the still floored Sora. "You have been manipulated by Naminé."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Since you came to this castle, you have been forgetting everything and remembering your little friend here."

Naminé looks away from Sora, feeling so guilty of her action that she cannot meet his eyes. Meanwhile, Larxene reveals everything of what she has done to his memories. The girl notices and freezes up by the sight of a pool of darkness nearby, getting bigger by the second, soon the head of what Marluxia has called the Guardian of the Castle appears, and it does not look happy.

"— everything you have been searching for until now was all fake, nothing but a lie. Binding you in the chains of your own memory was central to our trap, it made me tingle in how easily you were fooled." Larxene before smug smirk disappears, replaced with annoyance. "We almost got the keyblade master as our puppet, but—" she summon her knives, "Axel just had to betray us and set Naminé loose to screw everything up!" with the last word yelled out, she attacks the boy. He does put up a fight, but it's clear this truth is weighing heavy on his simple little mind. "Lost the will to fight?" She steps closer to the wounded boy. "I haven't ever really understood how it feels like, but, I have seen it enough to recognize it." Larxene remarks, for even back when she was still human, never did she give up on fighting. Let it be in battle or for the sake of someone.

Naminé wants to run over and step in between, but she cannot make herself move as the beast walks past her, giving off the air that the guardian is out for blood. And right as Larxene steps on Sora's keyblade, the guardian growls loudly, making the woman turn around, the only reaction she managed is a gasp, before the beast jumps and chomps its long teeth into her shoulder.

The forceful attack throws Larxene to the floor, she screams in pain as the guardian bites harder into her shoulder, blood and darkness flossing out and paint the beast's royal-blue muzzle red and black.

Sora and Naminé stare in horror at this new creature, currently mauling down on Larxene. Sora do snaps out from it when Donald and Goofy, both of which Sora left behind in his anger of thinking they didn't care about saving Naminé, came and offered their aid. Donald healed him while Goofy runs up before him to provide protection in case the newly arrived beast turns against them.

In much pain, but her anger is far greater. "Get off me, you stupid beast!" Larxene shouts and blasts the Guardian of the Castle with her lighting. The creature jerks away, but being the stubborn monster that it is, tries to bite her again. Larxene leaps away from its teeth, spins her knives around and jags three of them into the guardian's back. It roars in pain and lands hard onto the floor, clearly not fully recovered from the wounds Marluxia inflicted on it.

The creature struggles onto its feet, it gets up but legs trembling. It turns its blood-red eyes to Sora, meeting his blue. Sora stares into the seemly endless void of red, but for some reason, he understands the 'look' in this creature's eyes. He gives it a nod, summons his keyblade, and runs up beside it. The beast puts itself into a battle stage, glaring at Larxene with all the hatred it feels towards her.

What the hell is up with that creature? "Now you're deciding to play nice? And Sora of all people?!" She demands the beast, enraged it decided to team up with this brat. The guardian roars at her in response, wind of darkness briefly surrounding its clawed paws.

Donald and Goofy hesitate only for a moment, but when it's clear this creature of darkness is on their side, they join Sora. "Together we can take her!" Goofy declares.

"I don't care how many of you come," Larxene throws her knives at the group. "you're all going down!"

Goofy blocks those with his shield, and Donald waves his magical staff, crying. "Don't take us lightly!" Firing a blizzard spell at her. Didn't seem to affect Larxene much, but this small inconvenience gave Sora and the guardian the opening to rush over to the bit frozen to the spot woman and strike her with keyblade and claws.

This really pissed her off, "You little pests!" Larxene summons a handful of knives, throwing them against her opponents but does only hit the wall. Their small relief in thinking she has missed is short-lived, for by calling more knives to her hands, she uses her mastery of lightning-based magic and electrocutes the group.

Well, almost the whole group. The guardian succeeds in grabbing Sora and hurl him out from the thunder cage in the last second.

Sora lands on the floor, horrified in seeing his friend being victims for a powerful thunder spell, so without a second thought, he runs over and hits Larxene from the side. It wasn't a full hit as she did see it coming and teleported away, but it did make her stop casting the thunder spell, releasing Donald, Goofy and the creature from being electrocuted.

Donald and Goofy collapse, both somewhat knocked out from that attack, the guardian, not so much. It roars loudly, darkness appears under its claws and out from this, up to ten smaller same colored and having more or less the same ear tentacle, though smaller and more sharp in appearance, speed over the floor and jumps at Larxene. She tries to get them off, but they quickly overwhelm her. Sora, startled over this ability of the creature, but quickly takes it as his chance. He jumps into the air and hits Larxene hard with his keyblade. The woman falls, the small creatures get off her, returning back to the darkness of the larger one.

She can feel her form is breaking apart. "No… no!" Larxene struggles to keep herself from fading away, "I refuses to lose to such a bunch of losers!" but no matter how much she tries, her wounds are greater than her will and more, and more of her body breaks off and fades away. "No, this isn't…" still, she fights against the evadable. "the way I…" and she is gone, fighting till the very end.

Sora does not feel very particularly happy about this victory, not that he knows that who he has been trying to save… has been the cause of why he no longer can remember any of his friends... he turns to where Naminé is. She is sitting before Ri… no, a copy of Riku…

Sora's attention is briefly shifted when his hand is nudged upward, landing on top of this weird creature. It gives him a look, and he smiles weakly back to it. "Thanks." The creature hums before it turns around and walks off.

Sora watches it disappear into a pool of darkness, and with a deep breath, he walks over to speak with Naminé.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I have skipped all of the memory rooms due to there wouldn't have been any changes. Maybe a bit in Riku as he now got to deal with an arrogant voice, but it wasn't worth writing about.**
> 
> **Riku still meets Ansem, though this time, he has an extra voice taunting his fear towards darkness. The scenes where the Organization members are talking is the same as well.**
> 
> **There is however, one major change and that is the whole story about the Replica, you will see what I mean in future chapters.**
> 
> a certain little boy is meeting the mysterious fox. 


	4. Friends on the other side

The hero of the keyblade has long left the area and only the sheer destruction made by the lighting holds signs she has been here. Marluxia scans the area, he can clearly see that his partner in crime put up one hell of a fight like she always did. He remembers how to feel proud of someone doing a good job, but... the ghost sense of emotions going through his unfeeling being, it's not pride. It's something else, a sense he does not recall, does not know the name of.  
 _'What is this sense I am feeling?'_ He wonders, and why does he keep seeing a forest, having signs of fire, but also the same lightning marks as there are in this very room? He sees a body in this far-off memory, but cannot recall the face of that fallen. Only it makes this new sense stronger, Marluxia is not sure how to act on this nameless emotion. Maybe he will later, right now; he needs to deal with that meddler to Axel.  
This new sense returns, and it almost feels like his body got sat on fire, making this obscure memory of some person with red hair, stapping someone in the back. Marluxia blinks at this sudden memory and slowly lifts his hand, it is trembling as if he has held too tightly around his scythe for too long. He cannot recall the name of this emotion nor recognize what it means at all, only that Axel somehow triggered it... no, it wasn't Axel who gave him this strange sense of emotions.

Marluxia flicks his hand and he conjures up a flower with his very unique magic, it is big compared to the roses he usually makes when on his small speeches. It's flower head is horizontal green, with three bright orange petals sprouting on top, giving it a sense of a bird's head. When he extracted memories from Sora, started scattering them... that boy, something in his own scattered memories has started to line up... Marluxia stares at this flower, the strelitzia reginae, and just looking at it... he feels like something is missing... but for the life of him, he cannot recall what it is. well, in any case, he knows something is missing from this picture, and that is the woman who has been at his side ever since she joined the Organization.  
Axel is going to pay with his very life for this betrayal.

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_Darkness pulled him down, tore his heart out, and he rapidly started to forget as the Heartless went to claim his heart, but a swipe and the foul creatures got destroyed. The woman with the rose eyes walks over to him, keeping the darkness at bay with that magic staff of hers. She offers him a hand and he takes it, letting her take him away from the darkness._

_She brings him into a city, forever engulfed in the night, yet not scary thanks to the many lights coming from the lampposts and buildings. The woman brings him to an older boy. That one smiles to him, gives the woman a nod and with the sign for him to follow, the older boy starts leaving. He hesitates, but when checking and seeing the woman is gone, he trots after the older boy. At the moment, just happy he got out from the cold darkness and now walking this peaceful place._

_The older boy said that he has borrowed his dreams from him, and that is allowing the older boy to get around. He does not really mind as the older boy does let him stick around and is allowing him to do whatever catches his interest. Like figuring out the few mysteries, there is about this place and testing out a few things that cross his mind. The older boy made a nice company, very patient with him. Something he had been missing in his life for quite a while and slowly, he started to open up and more willing to speak of what is on his mind. The older boy always wanted to hear what he got to say, even engaged in the conversation, but clearly not always able to understand his line of thinking. It didn't matter, it was nice of merely having someone who would listen._

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

One of these "nobodies" has tried to make him embrace the darkness, and when Riku refused, the large man engaged into a fight. This man, Lexaeus, was powerful and Riku barely won this fight.

So caught up in his own anger and desperation to be rid of the darkness, Riku recklessly charged at Lexaeus, only to realize far too late that the man still got fight left in him. Lexaeus hit him hard with his ax-hammer, throwing the teenager boy so hard against the ceiling that he got knocked out cold.

Lexaeus, severely wounded and sensing he's having trouble keeping his form together, walks over to finish the boy off, however, he never got the chance. Darkness surrounds the boy and before Lexaeus could react, a Riku, now in a suit of darkness and spoke with a voice mixed of his own and one he knows is the superior. "Too slow." Lexaues fades away from the deadly strike that has torn off most of his chest. "Forgive me, Zexion…" with darkness swirling around his rapidly fading body. "This was a fight… I shouldn't have started…"

Deep inside his heart, Riku wakes, finding himself inside a foul darkness. Then he notices one sitting in a manner as if they are on a wall or a pillar of some sort. It's the owner of the voice that has throughout the castle been his only companion. "Did you do this?!" he demands the other boy, fearful and angry.

The masked boy chuckles coldly. "You're really like him. Thickheaded and following darkness to your own downfall."

Again with this other person, but knowing he won't get an answer, Riku won't even bother asking, well aware that will only give this boy more ammo to fire at him. Instead, he tries to figure out why this darkness feels so familiar… in all the worst ways possible.

"That's it, remember me…" A familiar but like the darkness, unwelcome in more way than he can count. "Let me drift into your heart."

Then it hits him. "Ansem!" The voice of said person starts to laugh, and the masked boy glances up with an amused: "Oh, this is going to be fun."

"You fear the darkness I hold and when I have awoken:" Right there, darkness swirls, gather and out from it, Ansem the Seeker of Darkness appears, declaring loudly. "Your heart will be mine!" Smugly Ansem reaches out for Riku, seemly unaware of the calm watching masked boy. Riku is so scared of being taken over again that all he can do is frail Ansem's hands away, unable to put up a proper fight.

"Riku, fight!" A sharp light appears, pushing Ansem away, while the masked boy suddenly jerks his head up as if surprised. "Don't let him win!"

This is all he needed, Riku fought and with Ansem roaring in rage as he got pushed down. Everything goes black for a moment, and when he opens his eyes again, Riku finds himself back inside the white hallways of Castle Oblivion. He recalls what happened, the king protected him. Does that mean— "Your majesty, where are you?" He calls out, "Please answer!" but he gets none, and no small king appears in these empty white halls.

_"… How did he do that?"_

Riku blinks and turns his attention to the voice of that boy of darkness, asking it, "What do you mean?"

_"He sensed you were in trouble, he arrived inside your heart— that shouldn't be possible!"_

Oh, Mickey came to him through their heart's connection, he's with him in that matter. It's a great comfort for Riku, and clearly a great confusion/frustrations for the voice. "And why shouldn't it be possible?" he asks the voice, their past interactions have made him observe the voice wants to feel like he's in control.

The voice snorts, clearly annoyed by all of this. _"You tell me."_

"I don't know," Riku lies and hoping to butter up this guy. "I was wondering if you have some experience with connections." He speaks to the voice and starts to move on again. Admittedly curious to the voice's thought on this whole topic but knows demanding or pretending he knows more about a subject only will lead to bullying or a sudden beating. This guy has anger issues; that's for sure.

The voice is quiet for a long time, then the air shift not far from Riku, and the masked boy appears, saying in a surprisingly calm voice. "My whole existence is because of connections." Riku stops before this other and seemly older boy, letting him talk. "I am the darkness of someone's heart, and when he almost perished, another heart saved him and:" The boy takes off the mask, and Riku cannot hold back a gasp at what face meets him. It's Sora's face, about two years older, hair raven black and eyes red. The boy meets his shocked eyes and smirks, "Gave me this look. So yeah, I know what connections mean; it's a link between hearts, feeling the other's emotions, but," The red eyes narrow in anger but also confusion. "you didn't share that kind of link with that stupid king. So tell me Riku:" The boy is suddenly right before Riku and grabs him around the collar. "What kind of connection was that?!"

This boy… has connections to Sora? How, he has no idea, but do hope he somehow can find out. "Friendship," He replies as calmly as he can in his current situation. That answer only seems to piss off the other boy further but before he can fire another dark ball at him. The boy fades away, and only his voice can be heard inside his heart.

_"There is nothing to gain from friendships! His friends didn't save him!"_

Riku glances downward to his heart, finding it a bit strange that talking with this guy who hates the thought of having friends, only thinks about power and is infuriating arrogant and aggressive. Is actually helping him to figure out what is the most important. "Maybe… you cannot understand this form of connection because you're so engulfed in darkness." This would've earned him a blast of darkness, but since the boy has just used his strength, Riku is confident the other one cannot manifest himself for a time. It makes him wonder:

"Is that power worth the loneliness?" He didn't get an answer, and the sense of anguish coming from this dark Sora look-alike is not getting him closer to a clue either. So Riku leaves the boy alone to whatever dark thoughts are going through that one's mind.

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_He was told to destroy these yellow-eyed creatures, being newly stripped away from him, he still felt a great fear, but unlike his other, did not freeze up. He used fear as a weapon: to survive. He summoned a keyblade and struck down all of the black creatures. Looking up to Master, the old man was smiling, he then turned to his other. Lying there with an empty, broken stare. Breathing but unmoving. "He's nothing but an empty shell." He observed and felt sad. The reason for this unmoving body before his feet; is because he is missing from the boy's heart. The sadness is quickly replaced with anger, hate. He loathes the feeling of being weak, to have almost died because of something trivial such a fear of one's power._

_These emotions only grew as time passed, seeing what should've been him, wasting away, he hates to feel pity for his other…. why does he not fight and live, instead of being a giant moron and die? What would mother say if she saw her son like that?_

_This unnatural separation– caused his negative emotions to create monsters, and like his light side, looking at them was like staring at the personification of his own weakness. It pissed him off, and since Master already punished him for hurting his weak Light, he instead attacked the monsters. They were part of him, and thus every time he destroyed one, he felt every strike and the 'death' the monster experienced, putting him in so much mental pain that it spawned more monsters, and although he knew it would only hurt himself. He didn't want to stare at his weakness and just wanted to feel that small spark a satisfaction right as he has slain them, but this was a vicious circle of hate, pain, low satisfaction, irritation, and repeat._

_When he finally broke, no longer able to endure the agony that has become his life, that was the first and last time he ever cried. His Master told him how to make the pain go away, forge something called the_

_X-blade. To do that, he needed to be strong. Knowing Master from his Light's memories, he knew that crying would gain him nothing, all he could do was fight, become strong, push everything aside other than the goal._

_His face changed when his Light got his heart repaired by that other heart. He felt the light from them both, how it changed his body and face and more than ever, longed for this light. For the constant pain he has been feeling since his creation, he wants it to go away._

_Master made him ignore the pain that was his split and incomplete heart. Trained him to be ruthless, only focus on his goal. He did not care much about Master, all he wanted was to make his pain go away, and if Master hasn't already proven to be powerful, then he would've lashed out on him a long time ago. Instead, he lashed out on his Light, wanting him to feel what he felt every single day, the irritation, the sorrow, the hate against weakness, and then the great loneliness when Master took his Light away._

_He felt his Light's emotions, how good he had it while he suffered, it made him hate him so much more, wanted his Light to know the pain he was in. But the one who healed his weaker side– gave him this face, kept his Light from feeling the connection. He only felt theirs, and more than ever, he wishes they could feel his emotions or at least let him get just any kind of relief in these negative emotions constantly surging through him, to share their light with him._

_He tried to leave, find his Light, but Master put a permanent stop to it by infusing some of his darkness to him, turned his eyes yellow. It didn't heal his heart, though. Only made the pain a bit more bearable._

_He learned to ignore this deep longing for his Light, focus on his hatred and loneliness so he could become strong and forge the X-blade, become whole as his broken heart wanted since his creation. He gained control over the monsters made from his emotions, tamed them in some manner, and later, mostly due to Master's influence, learned to ignore the pain and irritation he felt when they got struck down. He could endure if it got him closer to his goal._

_Nothing else mattered._

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Riku is standing on a large chunk of his home that has been torn away by the storm of that faithful night, it was horrifying back then, but now, realizing what he did, it truly shook him to the core.

"All of the islands you grew up on where sundered, scattered."

Riku spins around, the young man from before, Zexion, is standing there, his words hard and so confident that it feels like the truth.

"Many hearts were forever lost to the darkness. Because of what you did!" The young man points at an illusion of Riku, standing a bit further away, "You hated being an islander, so you opened the door to your world's heart, allowed the darkness to enter and destroyed the islands. It was YOU!"

Riku, in disbelief but also knowing this is the harsh truth, cannot retort anything back to Zexion. He did open the door, he allowed the Heartless to invade and the Destiny Islands to be consumed by darkness and spelling the end for many people he most likely has known all of his life.

"You were pulled into the darkness then, and now you belong to the darkness." Bitterly, the young man points at the illusion of Riku, "You should look— look at what you truly are!"

Riku did, and the illusion of him becomes a dark blob and that blob turns into the biggest Heartless there are inside the realm of darkness. Riku freezes up for a moment, but seeing that fist come at him, he rolls away and engages into a fight with the Darksider. Even if this is what he is deep inside, Riku still feels like he deserves to be punished, to be slain after have caused so much destruction to his homeworld and friends. Sora suddenly appears and without question where he came from, Riku joins his friend by slaying the Heartless. Sora lifts his keyblade and light bursts out from the blade, it takes down the Darksider but when the light hits Riku, he cries in pain.

Sora turns to him, "Riku, why did the light hurt you?" he asks confused, his blue eyes have a gleam Riku hasn't and never want to see in his friends gaze ever again. "Have you… have you really become a creature of the dark?" Sora asks, hesitates and seems to come to terms with something. "You're not Riku anymore… only a pawn of the darkness."

Riku wants to argue that he is still him, but even he's not so sure anymore. He has done such terrible things, been conversing with only beings of darkness and the light hurt him…

Sora lifts his keyblade, declaring, "It's time for you to face the light!" Riku cries as the powerful light consumes his body.

_'I'm… fading… fading away… into the light.'_

"You won't fade." Kairi appears inside the light, tells him a matter of factly that is comforting. "You can't fade. There's no power that can defeat you. Not the light, not the dark." She smiles, not the one Kairi makes, meaning this isn't his childhood friend. It does not matter. He needs to hear these words. "So don't run from the light and don't fear the darkness. Because both will make you stronger."

"Darkness too?" He asks this girl who has taken Kairi's shape, confused about what she is saying.

She nods and points out in a somewhat sad manner, "The darkness inside your heart— it's vast and deep…" then that smile returns, one that says everything will be alright. "but if you can truly stare into it and never try to look away, you won't be afraid of anything again."

He has been afraid, not only at the darkness but what's lurking inside of it. "All this time, I've tried to push the darkness away… fight against its grip on me." Deny his own failures and pretend he is better than this.

"Be brave Riku. Know the darkness is there and don't give in. If you do that, you will gain a strength unlike any other."

"That's right," He turns around and the boy, that looks like a dark Sora is standing. For some reason, he seems to enjoy standing inside this harsh light. "with both powers, you can endure the worst kind of darkness." The boy speaks with arms crossed in a confident pose.

"And be able to see through the brightest of light." He muses, getting what both are saying, but... "Will I be able to face my friends like this?"

"You don't want to?" The girl asks and the boy remarks with a roll of his eyes. "It's their loss if they turn their backs on you."

Riku smiles to both encouraging words. "Of course," the girl disappears with a cheerful smile very similar to Kairi's, the boy watches him, smirking but not at the enjoyment of his predicament. It's probably the best way that guy can come to an encouraging smile. "and I will see them," he now knows the way, accepting who he is, both the good and the bad. "with my strength— my dark strength!"

The boy's smirk widens, he reaches a hand to him, Riku takes it and with the darkness surging through his body, he rushes into the harsh light, summons his weapon and strikes where he can smell the other.

The light disappears; he's back on the memory of the ruined island, at first, the one he struck looks like Sora but when Sora speaks "impossible…!" it's the voice of Zexion.

The illusion drops and so does the Nobody, in disbelief on how Riku found him. he asks the boy that, adding, "You were trapped in the light!"

Riku smiles, no longer afraid of either light or darkness, which means, beings from both sides does not scare him much anymore. "You reek of darkness." He states to the person, "Even the light can't block the smell." smirks when he hears the other boy snaps inside his heart.

_"Darkness does not reek!"_

_'Sure, and light does not blind.'_ Riku mentally retorts back, playfully but it does the trick by calming this walking anger issue down

"This is absurd…" the Nobody growls in disbelief that Riku practically followed the darkness to reach him. Zexion gets up and out of darkness, summons a black book. "Then I shall make you see that your hopes are nothing," Riku prepares himself of the sudden tension in the air, "nothing but a mere illusion!"

This guy proves to be quite the spell caster, powerful illusions shrouded him, making him hard to pinpoint as he clearly learned from the lesson that Riku can detect darkness. Zexion conjured meteor that would hit this whole batch of flying rock, and if not for his dark powers, then Riku would've been done for. He gets in close, thinking this Nobody is more of a long-range fighter, but he learns the hard way that this one is not only meteor and illusions. Zexion smirks, takes hold of his weapon and with some sort of spell, creates a copy of it, and although he's not an adept sword fighter, Riku's opponent still knows how to swing a blade. Riku blocks the blade with the right and from the left, he does the same trick the other boy did to him: he blasts a ball of darkness right at the young man and with him stunned rushes into an attack, but does not strike the Nobody's chest. Instead, he aims for the hand that holds that book.

A cry of pain and the book is sent flying, Riku does not allow himself a moment of satisfaction, pretty sure this guy can do spells even without his spellbook. Proven correct when the Nobody creates illusions of himself, also makes a tornado just for good measures. Riku tries to leap away from the tornado but a flying rock from what he can only guess is the real one, throws him into the whirlwind, hurled around and when he lands onto the ground again, the hard landing makes him lose his sword. The Nobody recalls his book and charges up to throw one hell of a meteor at him. Riku acts fast, he teleports over and returns the favor by the biggest dark ball he can manage.

The Nobody drops hard onto the ground, struggles to get up and when noticing that he's leaking darkness from the injuries, much to Riku's annoyance, cast a quick healing spell on the wounds. Still badly wounded, Zexion struggles back onto his feet, pointing out with no sense of fear or worry in his voice, in fact, he sounds more amused. "After all your protests, you're still like us, on the side of darkness."

"I know who I am." Riku retorts. It took him a lot of beatings, but he has come to accept the darkness in him.

Zexion shakes his head, letting out small, mocking laughter. "Are you so sure about that? You may fool the others, but I know what lurks inside of your darkness. Sooner or later, Ansem will take your body once again."

Never again will he let that happen. "Not a chance!" Riku cries and goes for, hopefully, the final strike but instead of hitting the Nobody, Riku gets thrown back by a stupidly powerful shield spell.

"Control is only an illusion of the mind, Riku." Zexion remarks to him, before teleporting away.

Well, that was one infuriating know-it-all guy, but Riku does not bother to pursue, much to the other boy's annoyance.

"You let him get away."

Turning to him, "If he returns, I will take him down. But I doubt we will see him again." Riku assures the boy. Sure, Zexion didn't show any hint of fear towards him or his newfound powers, but this guy did seem smart, so he should know picking another fight will only lead to his downfall. A bit to Riku's surprise, the other boy does not argue, instead this dark boy chuckles. Riku titles his head for that isn't the mocking laugh he's used to hearing from him.

"You are one weird one, Riku." The boy remarks, still chuckling. "You started out as such a weakling and look at you now. Not a hint of fear."

"I had a good support group." Riku replies, somewhat sarcastically, at least the other boy found it amusing as he smirks back, those red eyes have a certain shine of glee. In all honesty, though, this boy, although very hard to deal with, did teach him that darkness is not all that bad, it's like negative emotions. They need to be there, but they shouldn't control one's life. Now with a better understanding of darkness and thus this boy. "You never answered my question before. About it being lonely in the darkness."

The boy's face drops, showing his true feelings about the matter, but only for a moment and the 'mask' is up again. "I'm better off without people." The boy replies with a confident smile and glare that dares him to argue back.

No, that's just the pride talking, deep down, this boy wants friends, but seems incapable. Riku knows he is really pushing it now, but he is willing to take a dark ball to the face. He offers the boy a hand, taking the other off guard. "I doubt the Heartless makes up for good company."

The boy stares at the offered hand, snorts a laugh, and hits the hand away, "Get lost already Riku. You're starting to stink up the place." and he fades away.

Riku smiles at that one threw that insult back at him. "The offer still stands." He leaves this memory room, hoping that boy will find whatever he's looking for and not breaks it in progress. That boy does not know how to be gentle at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Through a bit of research, I found out the dark boy did once have red eyes, so that's his original eye color. The reason for them being yellow in the past is due to possession. His background story is from a Birth by Sleep novel that tells the tragic story about this guy.**
> 
> **if any of you have played or know the story of the KH game Union Cross, then you will know what Marluxia is missing. Though his lack of memory is caused by something else entirely in this story. But Axel better watch out for it looks like whatever Marluxia is 'feeling' is pointed at him and it's not going to earn him a simple stern talking to.**
> 
> **I have changed the "rules" about certain things, such as how a Nobody "works" as well as the importance of both light and darkness. I don't really like it when things are black and white in stories, I prefer things to be a bit more nuanced. So in this universe I am writing, Darkness is powered by negative emotions and Light positive emotions. lacking either and that person is going to get really messed up.  
>  you will see what I mean in future Books.**


	5. The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A quick explanation: in this lore, I have going. A Nobody cannot "grow a heart" (because I found that part extremely stupid) instead, they can "feel" emotions through the link they share to their lost heart. The more they act as they would with a heart, the stronger this link and more apparent are these ghosts' sense of emotions. However, the longer a Nobody lives, the harder it becomes to remember this link, and will make the Nobody only a whisper of who they once were.**

Axel finds Marluxia on the top floor, speaking to the once again captured Naminé, not that it matters; the memory girl has done what he wanted from her. "Surely, I'm not interrupting something." He calls out to the pink-haired Nobody in a cheeky voice, one of the few things he still remembers to do from his human memories. "You know, I was wondering what you have been up to. Now that Larxene is gone and everything." He jabs the older male just for good measures, those two sure seemed close.

Marluxia turns around, and for the first time, he does not have that arrogant air around him; in fact, Axel daresay that he managed to piss off this guy. He takes that as a win, for Marluxia is surprisingly hard to get a proper reaction out from, considering he has only been a Nobody for about two years. "Axel... you have some nerve to show your treasonous face around here... some nerve indeed–"

"Treasonous? I don't have a clue what you're talking about." Axel cheekily interrupts Marluxia, to then pretend he remembers, "Ooh, right, your big plan. We were only supposed using Naminé to scatter Sora's memory, but you went one step further in rewriting his memory." Gesturing over to said memory girl. "With Naminé under your thump, Sora was going to be your perfect little puppet and use him to overthrow the Organization. Am I wrong?" Marluxia does not answer, so Axel continues. "I would say that YOU are the traitor, Marluxia."

This made the Graceful Assassin let out a small laugh of what Axel is saying. "So you only eliminated Vexen to obtain proof of our plan?" Must say, Axel sure walks some insane length for a slipper of proof.

"That, I didn't want to do, but it was your order." Axel replies and summons his weapons, two chakrams in a burst of flames. "Remember the order: you must eliminate the traitor." He smirks over to the older male while spinning his weapons. "I always follow orders. Marluxia."

Marluxia chuckles at this, finding it funny in how Axel has turned into a double agent. He jumps back when Axel comes at him, not at all worried if the Flurry of the Dancing Flames will defeat him, for he knows; that Axel isn't near his power level. So not giving his all, but still wanting this nuisance to disappear, Marluxia retaliates with a shockwave made by a swing of his scythe. Axel blocks it with his chakrams, letting out a small grunt at the force of this strike. The younger male then throws his weapons, in which Marluxia blocks, bouncing one of them over to where Naminé is standing, almost hitting her. Neither he or Axel found themself to care about the now useless girl's safety.

Axel caught one of his chakrams, the other one he recalls by a wave of his hand, making it materialize in a burst of flames. With them both in hand, he jumps up and, with the chakrams on fire, throws them down to Marluxia, surrounding him in a wall of fire. "Try and get past that, flower boy!" He taunts the other one. Marluxia winches somewhat from the heat of his flames.

Naminé, horrified of being caught in the crossfire of these two Organization members, blinks when she senses powerful but scattered memories coming from Marluxia. It startles her that she can sense them as it means this man has somehow become connected to Sora, how it happened, she is not going to question. For right this moment, she is scared, helpless, and very desperate to get out of this battlezone. With her powers, she takes hold of the memories stirring in Marluxia, making her somewhat part of them.

He jerks at the sudden migraine hitting him, and it takes a great effort in not reaching for his hurting head. Axel mistakes this jerk for weakness against fire and goes for him, Marluxia only barely dodges, in pain and confused about suddenly being in that forest again. He follows Axel with his eyes, and right as the man landed. A woman takes his place, hair red, dressed in a dress rope that has white feathers around the collar. This red-haired woman is standing before that fallen person. However, this time, he sees the face. His eyes wide, unaware he is looking straight at Naminé. All he sees is an old-teenage girl, the long light red hair, messed up, and her mostly white clothing has become soiled in blood. The sense from before returns, and with a fury he has never experienced before. Marluxia goes at Axel, and when their weapons clash, the pink-haired man is not holding back.

This caught Axel more than a little off guard, one should think that Marluxia would unleash all of his powers at someone trying to kill him, but apparently, he was mistaken. He lost his balance at the sudden burst of power behind that attack, and Marluxia used it against him. Thorns burst up around Axel and cut deeply into his body, leaving the same poison effect as the Graceful Assassin left on the Guardian of this place. Axel sneers in pain, quickly teleport away, he tries to heal himself, but the now really pissed Marluxia wasn't having it. The man blitzes to him, and only sheer luck saved Axel from getting his head sliced off, but even though he blocked the attack, that strike still threw him off his feet. He lands a few meters away from Marluxia, Axel quickly heals himself and can't help but chuckle on how this battle now is going. "Clearly, I underestimated you. I can now see why the superior named you the lord of this castle." The other male disappears and Axel tense up when he hears Marluxia's voice behind him: "You haven't seen anything yet." Axel spins around, tries to hit the other man, but Marluxia stops his attack with a shockwave made of flower petals, throwing him to the floor once again. _'sheesh, of someone using flowers in his attacks. Marluxia sure packs one hell of a punch.'_ and Axel finds great irony in that.

Another headache and the hazy memory that made him react so... radical fades, leaving him once again with a hollow sense in his body. Marluxia glances over to the girl and narrows his eyes when realizing it was Naminé. She has every right to be scared, for that girl has just dared to use her powers against him. A quick spell, and he smirks darkly of who is approaching. Marluxia teleports over and grabs the terrified girl, and holds her before him. As expected, Axel is willing to hurt her to get to him.

"Won't do you any good I'm afraid."

"Oh, I think it will." Marluxia smirks and then calls to the just arrived hero "Are you listening, Sora?" and tells the boy in a matter of fact, "Axel says he's willing to harm Naminé to get me. You won't let that happen, will you?" Sora answers by going at Axel, who has no choice than to fight the keyblade chosen. And while those two fight, Marluxia takes the girl away.

Fearfully following the man, Naminé dreads what Marluxia is going to do with her, that look he gave her, he knows she took hold on his memories. "How long have you been messing with my memory?" Naminé looks up to the man, hesitates, but decides to answer truthfully, "I only took hold on those you already had. They are all real, that girl too." Those broken memories... they are incredibly strong. She thinks... they are the source of his very existence.

Marluxia frowns at what this witch of memory told him. He cannot recall a proper response in hearing that he does apparently have more than just a name. "Who was that girl?"

"...I don't know." Naminé replies softly, all she can tell this now frowning but deadly calm man. "Only that she seemed very important."

Important? Yes, he thinks she is. Marluxia stops before a door, searching his memory for any answer of who that girl is, but not even a name would pop into mind. Dropping his head slightly, painfully aware of the danger, but this new sense, one he cannot name. Only he knows that it compels him to find that girl from his obscure past. "Naminé, if you can give me the name of her, a clue of where to find her. I will spare your life." He feels Naminé tense up beside him, he eyes that girl, calm but those blue, cold eyes are deadly serious. "Fail or mess further with my memory, I will strike you down where you stand. Not even your little hero can save you." She stares fearfully up to him, indifferent about her 'feelings' Marluxia kneels down before her, bowing his head slightly in sign that he has submitted what little memory he has to her.

She hesitates, but with no other choice, Naminé taps into Marluxia's memory, startled to find that he has so few. They aren't just scattered like Sora's. No, he literally has very few memories. She can sense the chains keeping them together, but they feel– for lack of a better word, scorched. _'what could've caused this?'_ She wonders, and yet dreads the answer. Naminé follows these badly burned chains, and finds an area where the memories haven't entirely burned up, still severely damaged but still holds enough for her to work with something. Naminé finds the precious memory that allowed him to become a humanoid Nobody, and it startles her to realize who this girl is and why Larxene teamed up with him. She wants to let him remember, but... she cannot connect the scattered memory with these scorched chains. So letting the memory float away again, Naminé has to verbally tell Marluxia of what he can only barely grasp onto. "Her name is... Strelitzia and she... she was your sister."

"was?"

The blond girl nods slowly and with hands up to her chest, explains. "She was struck down..." Naminé jerks back from how fast he got back on his feet. Marluxia stares into space, and Naminé dreads of what he is thinking about, more so when he glances at the door where running footsteps can be heard. The man lets out a chuckle, his eyes closed and a dark smirk on his lips. "Guess it can't be helped." Before he summons and puts the blade of his scythe over her shoulder. Naminé freezes up, fearing the worst that Marluxia wasn't going to hold his end of the bargain and now going to use her against Sora.

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Well, at least Sora proved useful in getting rid of Marluxia, no idea how he did it, but Axel does like to think that he weakened the other Nobody just enough for Sora to do the finishing blow. Whatever the case, the traitor is gone and that only leaves up a few loose ends. One of them is the remaining senior member and knowing Zexion: that one will report all of this back to the boss. That guy always prioritized the Organization above anything else, Axel decides to get rid of him, leaving him as the only Nobody survivor of Castle Oblivion. But Axel has no wish in doing that himself, sure he might be able to finish Zexion off since the higher ranking is weak from the beatings he took from Riku. However, Axel is pretty sure Zexion still has some fight left in him and Axel rather not get pummeled by magical meteors. So Axel picks up the broken replica of Riku, but getting it to work is quite the hassle. "Naminé sure broke you good." He remarks and is not sure what the girl broke, only that the replica here does not even know what it is anymore. It thinks it's Riku and yet knows it's a fake, but keeps mixing those two lines of thoughts together. Really disoriented to be honest.

But hey, at least the replica still listens to commands. Takes a while getting the replica to focus on him– yeah, Naminé really messed this one up, but listen to his words he does, and Axel brings the replica to the room were Zexion has sought cover in.

He finds the remaining senior member walk back and forward, musing something to himself. Probably scheming new ways to take down Riku, and hopefully not have put together that he has been the cause of this mess.

The moment Zexion spots him along with the replica, he stops, stares at first wary at the replica– the closet Zexion can come to fear. The moment he realizes that this isn't the real Riku, Zexion suggests calmly. "Ah, perfect. We can use this Riku to defeat the real one. If not, it should lead to a decent distraction." That was a quick recovery, but Axel is not surprised, Zexion has always been a quick thinker, and it's only a matter of time before he realizes the betrayal Axel has done. Something he just cannot risk. And right he is, for what the senior member remarks: "If you don't screw up things more than you already have, Axel." Clear sign Zexion is up to him.

Better get rid of him before Zexion recovers enough to teleport away. Axel steps over to the broken replica and speaks into its ear, quiet so Zexion won't hear. "All you need to be real; is getting a kind of power the real Riku doesn't have." He smiles over to Zexion, so glad that he hasn't caught up just yet. "He's as good a place to start as any."

The replica nods and, without a word or warning, rushes over and catches the weak Zexion.

The senior Nobody struggles even tries to fight back from how a spell is appearing from his hand, but before he can do anything. The replica steals his powers and what little life-force was left.

"So sorry Zexion," Axel smiles to the fading member, though having not a single hint of remorse for what he has done, "but you're really too smart for your own good."

With Zexion gone, Axel abandons the replica, not really caring about its fate now that he has used it for his purpose.

The replica does move from its spot, with its core shattered by Naminé, this fake Riku would barely be able to form proper thoughts, only fragments and it will go a long time before this replica will figure out what to do with itself. All it can do it try and pick up any sort of piece in an attempt to repair its shattered core that works as its heart.

With everyone out of the way, Axel walks through one of the white corridors of the castle, seemly aimlessly but in reality, he is searching for an elusive chamber, though having no idea how it looks like or even what it contains. Only that this chamber has something their superior is very interested in, and that's enough for him to know.

Behind the wandering Nobody, a pool of darkness appears and out from it, the guardian of the castle emerges, it growls and the red-haired Nobody spins around, summoning his flaming weapons. The creature does not lunge into an attack like it did all the other times when encountering a Nobody. Instead it just stands there and stares, unsure how exactly to tackle this problem.

Realizing that the creature is not going to attack, Axel lowers his weapons but does not dismiss them. He hesitates as it is still staring intensely at him, but decides to start walking again. Checking over his shoulders, the creature is following, like a dog, it is unsure how to approach him. For some reason, it does not consider him a threat and yet still aware he is intruding. Why is it friendly towards him?

Axel does not know but he's not complaining; fighting that thing just to go around searching for a stupid chamber sounds like the worst kind of job. "Why are you chill with me and none of the others?" He asks the creature, though not expecting any answer from it.

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_Studying the Spirits is always fun; many of them look the same but none are. They are unique in each of their manners, like dreams, they are slightly different in either color, element or… huh? Oh, it's one of those again. His friend calls these entities the Lost, people searching for something they have lost, and there's not really any way to help them. According to his friend, he is a Lost too. And what he lost was his entire body. He has come up with several theories on how's that possible and why he still has a body here, however, none came with a solution to how he can return back to the realm of light. He is about to leave this Lost to its own device, those he has met are utterly unaware of him and are quite dull, but stops when sensing something… this one feels different. Like this belongs to him… can this be what he lost? Is that... his body?_

_"Well, it looks like it's time for you to leave."_

_He turns to his older friend, who points out a friendly warning. "You might have to rid yourself of the power you have gained."_

_"What do you mean?" He asks, confused about what power his friend speaks about, but his friend merely smiles and signs for him to approach this Lost entity. He hesitates but does walk over and reaches out for what he presumes is his body._

_He wakes inside some void, but why is he here? The replica- it took his strength- he faded away!_

_A gasp makes him turn; and if he could, then he would've been overly shocked, dumbfounded even, for right there is a child version of himself. Staring wide-eyed at him in utter surprise, but slowly the boy recovers over the shock and starts walking, although hesitant, over to him._

_Something is wrong, his mind screams, he should get away, but his body refuses to obey his mind. The powerful sense of been drawn to the boy is overwhelming, he cannot move and before his brain can even snap him out from whatever danger it senses, the boy takes his hand— and something is flooding into him._

_It feels like his entire body is about to burst!_

_He tries to fight whatever this is, but it's rapidly overwhelming his entire being. He collapses onto the 'ground', making the boy version of him jump back. He barely notices it though, whatever has entered his body is breaking it apart!_

_His hands are cracking into tiny pieces, and bowing his head slightly, he can only watch helplessly the rest of his body breaking apart from the overwhelming pressure inside of him._

_Suddenly, the boy version of him is before his gaze, keeping their eyes locked with a face of emotions he no longer can recognize._

_"Focus on your dream, don't you dare falter!" The boy tells him hard, eyes sharp and unyielding. "We're going back, you hear me!"_

_Forcing himself to ignore the pain of being torn to shreds from the inside, body breaking at this intruding power. He nods to the other him– realizing what this is. The very thing he lost all those years back, the thing he has worked so hard to regain, now at his reach. It hurts so much... but he wants it back. He wants to be whole again!_

_Keeping his eyes locked to the boy until his body is no more. But even without the eyes to see, he still focuses on the child version of him. It is so hard, the pain is excruciating, but he forces his mind to focus, steadfast in reaching his only dream as a Nobody._

_Heart and Soul start building the shattered pieces back into a vessel that can carry them both, along with whatever the child version brought along with him._

_Then, the pain is gone, he is back and lying on some glassy surface, it feels familiar somehow but— a huge wave hits him hard and he falls off, into some sort of liquid in blue with purple colors. He's sinking in deeper and deeper, for a moment, given up fighting against this strange ocean that beckons him to sleep. Parts of him want to sleep, want to return whatever that has invaded him, but another, stronger part, wants to keep it. He cannot disobey this command, and thus he struggles against the depths of sleep. Leaving this realm, he needs to get out of this weird nightmare… he needs to wake up!_

_"See you soon." His friend speaks down in the depths of sleep._

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Now dressed in the black coats that protect the wearer against darkness, Riku and Mickey walk over to the man who has been, like the boy of darkness, helping Riku in accepting his own darkness and overcoming Ansem that has been tainting his heart since that fateful day. The man; Diz is standing on a three path crossroad and knowing this guy's whole trait is making him do the choosing, he asks Diz. "What are you making me choose now?"

"Between the road to light and the road to darkness." Diz replies, gesturing to each of the two roads.

"Neither suits me." Riku replies, for looking into both light and darkness, he sees people close to his heart. People, he refuses to cast aside as he did before. Be has accepted them and thus: "I'm taking the middle road."

Following the boy heading to the middle road. "Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?" Diz asks.

"No," Riku turns to the man, he might be walking between light and darkness, but his path is walking towards the hope of a new day brings. And right he is for the night is starting to break on the horizon of this hope. "It's the road to dawn."

He begins to walk down this road, Mickey joins him on the left and glancing to the right, he sees that boy of darkness. Riku finds himself relieved to see that this boy chooses to stick around even after he left Castle Oblivion.

 _'I thought you didn't need people.'_ He remarks to the boy through his mind.

The boy snorts and smirks. _'Heartless don't make much of a conversation. And besides,"_ the red eyes meet his turquoise blue. _'I was getting bored being stuck in that place.'_

Riku smiles, 'Fair enough.' the boy can accompany him for as long as he needs. _'Are you ever going to tell me your name?'_ He didn't get an answer, and the boy is gone once again, but Riku knows where to find him, so he's not worried.

The road leads to a world Riku recognizes, one he ended up in and which had at first started his descent to darkness, now it is here to welcome the new him on this road of twilight.

The darkness of Ansem is still there and causing him trouble, but he got people in the darkness to help him keep it in check, so Riku knows that it won't overcome him.

Him and Mickey walk into the Great Maw that is the outskirts of Hollow Bastion, the town itself cannot be seen as of yet, but that is alright. Riku isn't really planning on— a surge of magic blast through the air. It's not light or darkness, something else entirely. And because of this, Riku has no idea what to expect but in case it's dangerous, he summons his blade; Souleater.

Mickey felt the surge as well and like him, summons his own keyblade, both scanning the area for whatever caused the extreme power. The surge fades rapidly away, but the trace of where it erupted can still be felt.

Riku decides to follow it, curious about what caused this kind of magical burst.

The trace leads him to a rock formation and in a circle of that magic, is a person, unconscious but is dressed in a black coat like him and Mickey.

Riku is wary as the only people he has met so far with that kind of coats are bad news. He slowly approaches this person, but the closer he gets, the more he realizes that this person does not have the stench of darkness. He does still not dismiss his weapon, less so when this person is slowly coming around.

He recognizes this one, it's Zexion, the young man— Nobody that he fought against a few days past. "You again," he growls, wondering if Zexion here is looking for another fight.

Zexion turns, at first too dazed to really notice him and when he does… well, Riku hadn't expected such a strong reaction from the calm and collective Nobody.

Zexion jerks away, so fast that he stumbles over his own feet and lands right back onto the ground. Hyperventilating the young man turns to him, staring with eyes that are filled with pure terror. So much so that it got him frozen up. This catches Riku truly by surprise. This is such a 180 change of behavior from that Nobody. Really confusing Riku finds himself unsure if this really is the same guy he fought inside the memory room of Destiny Islands. "Something… different about—" his words get rudely interrupted by three small but hard-hitting fireballs slams into his chest. Did hurt but caught him more by surprise, more so when Zexion bolts for it. "What the-?!" This guy is terrified; that's for sure and wanting to know what's the deal is with this whole change of behavior, Riku chases after him.

Catching Zexion is rather easy, guy is too much in a panic frenzy that he is unable to do much other than just react on an instinctual level.

Mickey, confused by all of this between the two, but having a gut sense, he knows that young man, he runs over to where Riku is holding the terrified young man and getting a proper look on the struggling one's face. He sees an older vision of a boy he has seen a few times when visiting an old friend. "I-Ienzo? That's really you?"

Riku blinks at the name, "Ienzo?" that wasn't the name this guy used when they last met, but then again, this might not even be Zexion as that guy was a master illusionist. Mickey nods and urges the young man to answer him. "Ienzo, please don't be scared. It's me, Mickey, I am a friend of…"

But Ienzo here is too trapped in his own fear to recognize anything. And from how his hands are starting to spark, Riku knows another magical attack is coming up but not wanting to be hit by another spell. "I think you better take a nap." He hits the young man over the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

He and Mickey exchange a look with one another, unsure what to do with this unexpected outcome, the third party member is no help, for he's busy laughing at the whole scene.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Slowly the world returns back into focus, so does the headache, it feels like he got hit over the head, but he does not recall when that happened. "Ugh…" He moans, touching the spot and hand winches away when a spike of pain hits him again. Yeah, someone definitely hit him... Someone walks over to him and he is so mentally drained that he barely reacts.

"Are you alright?" The person asks.

He needs a moment to realize someone is talking to him and another to recognize that round face. "King Mickey…? Wha…" Then the flood returns when he recalls the last time he saw the small king. He cries and clutches his head.

 _'What's going one...! The memories… they aren't supposed to hurt like this!'_ "What's happening…? Why does it hurt? My memories… they are not supposed to hurt...!" He cries and struggles, truly struggles to make the pain stop, but those waves are hitting him hard and with no mercy. He cannot comprehend what these waves are, only that they hurt and flooding his mind with thoughts he has no chance of sorting out.

"Ienzo!"

What? No, no, that's not his name… "I- I'm n-not…" He sees himself be killed by the replica and another wave hits him, making the trembling body collapse onto the gravel ground. Another wave, he sees his own body break apart, fade into the darkness. "Please make it stop!" He cries, but the crushing waves won't stop. They just keep hitting his already drained mind and body, endangered to break it by each hit.

Mickey swiftly hurries over to the clearly suffering Ienzo, but all he can do is put his hands on the trembling young man's shoulders, has no idea what is causing Ienzo such agony.

Something has definitely changed about this guy, the darkness that made up the body has been replaced with light, now the only darkness left is what seems to be hurting him.

 _"Oh yeah, I have been there."_ The boy from the darkness speaks, not sympathetic, more like he knows the feeling.

Riku turns his attention on the dark boy, for he has no idea what is causing Zexi— uh, Ienzo so much pain. _'What's happening to him?'_

 _"His negative emotions are flooding his heart, idiot."_ The boy snaps back and after a moment of silence, _"Which makes this whole thing really funny, he didn't have a heart before."_

He didn't have a heart before?! How is that even possible?– No, he can ask about that later, now he knows what's causing Ienzo pain. His body is being overwhelmed by emotions, by a heart he hasn't been dealing with before. It's hard to wrap his head around, to be honest.

Riku steps over, but the moment Ienzo spots him, a spike of darkness from the negative emotions, closely followed by the young man screaming in sheer agony of what emotions— most likely fear from being attacked for seemly no apparent reason.

Riku quickly draws back, "He shouldn't be dealing with whatever emotions I caused him." He muses, Ienzo is dealing with enough as it is.

It takes some painful minutes, but Ienzo goes silent from a literal emotional burn-down, so exhausted that he doesn't react on Mickey or anything anymore. Mickey turns away from the still and gone very quiet young man, eyeing Riku deeply worried.

Which makes Riku wonder, "Mickey, how do you know this guy?"

Mickey leaves Ienzo, giving the young man time to rest from that mental breakdown, he takes a seat beside Riku in this rocky area. "Ienzo was taken in by a friend of mine, Ansem the Wise." Adding quickly, "but not the Ansem you know, that Heartless stole Ansem's name and twisted his research."

Not at all surprised that Ansem is an identity thief as well. "Okay, do you know what happened to Ienzo here?" Riku asks, he is trying to understand how got the cold, calculated illusionist to Zexion, into this emotional mess he is now.

Unaware that Ienzo is listening in, Mickey replies somberly. "Well, he and the other apprentices of Ansem disappeared about nine years ago. I don't know how but I am hoping Ienzo can tell me…" Casting the resting young man a glance, "when he feels better, that is."

Lying with his back to them, Ienzo slowly moves his hand up to his chest, and he feels it, the heart he lost all those years ago and now… causing him all of this distress… Ienzo's hand moves up to his visible eye and quietly dries away a tear, not sure how he is going to handle the hardship his humanity brought along with it. Riku and Mickey talk a bit back and forward in their next coarse of action, Ienzo tries to continue listening in but exhausting of his return soon overwhelms him and he falls asleep. Ienzo finds himself back in a known town engulfed in the eternal night but does find some comfort in being here again and takes a seat on a small wall, watching the night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **The fight between Riku and his replica never happens, so the replica is still around but I won't call him alive either. The actions Axel made the replica do will have a long-lasting consequence. Though it won't be realized for quite a while. The same as what Naminé did to Riku Replica, in this lore, she broke his 'heart' and though it might somewhat recover, the replica will never be the same after this.**
> 
> **Riku did fight against Ansem and would get a bit of help from the boy of darkness, though not enough that I felt like writing that scene.**
> 
> **The meeting with Diz and Naminé are pretty much the same as well.**
> 
> **You can figure how certain things will change now that Ienzo has returned, and so soon after his Nobody's defeat. Though he is going to need a lot of recovering from the heartaches his newly restored heart is causing him.**
> 
> **He is feeling emotions for the first time in nine years, so yeah, things for him won't be the same either.**
> 
> **Comments are always welcome, and I hope you will stick with me through the other Books about the other games.**


	6. Forging an alliance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I have made a reason to how Riku and Mickey could practically just walk into a new world, but will for now keep it hidden as I have plans of explaining that when I come to the Birth by Sleep and Union X books.**
> 
> **There is a question I would like to ask you guys but will wait to ask it at the end of this story/chapter. For now: Enjoy.**

The next day, and the moment Mickey has gone out to find something for them to eat, Riku takes his chance to ask Zexion- uh Ienzo some questions he rather not have the king to hear about. He is careful to approach the young man, as Ienzo is still recovering from the flooding of emotions his heart caused him yesterday. When sure Ienzo has seen him and not showing signs of getting into a panic frenzy, though does still look umcomforable having him around. Riku's approach is slow and all the time, making sure to show he's no out to hurt the other one. It proves to be worth it, as the former Nobody stays somewhat calm and when close enough, Riku asks the young man, "Are you Zexion?"  
Ienzo- or is it Zexion? sits up and avoiding his eyes, the young man quietly nods. To be as none threatening as possible, Riku takes a seat, close for a conversation but far enough, so the other one won't feel he's in immediate danger.  
"So why does the king- I mean Mickey call you Ienzo?"

After a painfully long silence, "Zexion is what my Nobody was called…" Ienzo finally answers quietly, still avoiding eye-contact.

A bit confusing but, Riku thinks he gets it. "The man, Vexen, I think, said people like him, and you were called that." Riku muses, he notices that Ienzo is starting to tremble, okay, so not stepping further into that subject. But from that reaction, Riku has a feeling that Vexen was one of the apprentices Mickey spoke about. "Sorry," he apologizes and after has given Ienzo a moment to recover. Riku decides to ask Ienzo another question. "Can you tell me what a Nobody is?"

Quite ironic, a former enemy is now respectful of his returned emotions. He would've laughed if not so mentally drained. And yet he still wants to answer Riku these questions. It feels wrong to leave such a question hanging. "If a person who loses their heart to the darkness has a strong will, a Nobody is created. Exceptionally strong-willed Nobodies will look exactly like their human counterpart, the only difference:" Ienzo puts a hand on his chest where his heart, for once not tormenting his before cold and unfeeling body with the flood of emotions. "That they do not have a heart, and thus; unable to feel emotions."

Thinking back to the encounter with Ienzo's Nobody, if looking past the extraordinarily calm and collective behavior, Zexion had going. "Your Nobody did a pretty good job emoting with that speech of his. It had me fooled," Riku remarks. Honestly, hearing from his dark companion that these 'Nobodies' didn't have a heart took him significantly off guard.  
Ienzo looks away, but Riku still saw a hint of flattery, which is a nice change. "Was it all an act?"

"Yes, humanoid Nobodies can fabricate emotions out from their memories." Ienzo explains, talking helps his mind to focus and not be drowning in his merciless emotions.

"So... you used your memory?"

"In a sense, yes. But most of my— I mean Zexion's emoting came from the books he read." Ienzo hesitates but decides to reveal this as he rather keeps this conversation going than wallowing in that mess that is his thoughts, now holding a ton of pain to them. "I lost my heart at an early age and the emotions I felt back there, weren't of much use for me." He was quite the depressive child back at those days, figures that's why he has so much trouble dealing with his returned emotions.

"… How old were you?"

"I was eight years old when I became a Nobody." Ienzo replies simply.

… Well, that explains why Ienzo has trouble handling his returned emotions. Riku can't imagine how it must've been growing up and been unable to feel anything other than physical stimuli. And Ienzo is aware of this as well, since his next words: "My body had forgotten how it was like to have a heart, hence why I… cannot handle my own returned emotions." Riku nods slowly, he might not know how it must've been living without a heart for almost a decade, but he does know a thing or two about having trouble with one's inner demons. "I can't help you overcoming your own emotions, but I know for a fact that having people around is a great help in dealing with personal issues."

Ienzo blinks; fortunately, the emotion of surprise is not as cruel to his body as the others are. "That's a very gracious act towards one who tried to kill you." He points out in a matter of fact voice. Ienzo does not feel bad about have been trying to kill Riku. It was merely business on his part. Which reminds him, "How did you do it? Your scent of darkness is strong, but it does not look to affect you as it would affect other people. It's something I have never experienced before— no one has worn darkness like you do, Riku."

He can't help but chuckle lightly at this repeat. "Mickey said the same, but like negative emotions." Riku glances at the boy that has Sora's face, he is sitting nearby, watching him with a smug grin. "Darkness is not really that bad when knowing how to reign it."

"Fascinating." Ienzo muses, genuinely intrigued by how Riku is using darkness, about to ask further questions of this road of twilight the younger boy choose but stops when noticing Riku is giving him an amused look. This confuses the young man, "What's with that look?" He does not recall have said anything funny. 

It's funny how Ienzo's eyes seem to shine the moment his curiosity got sparked, like seeing Sora get excited about something. "It's nothing," Riku brushes off, merely glad that Ienzo is experiencing the better part of having a heart. Speaking of which: "How are you holding up? Heart still giving you a beating?"

"At the moment, I can handle my emotions," Ienzo replies. Still, painfully aware that he soon will be thrown around by those waves again. "but it's only a matter of time before they are going to overwhelm me again." Sighting, Ienzo turns his gaze to where Hollow Bastion is, his hand grips around his starting to ache chest. Body and mind want to turn around and put it as far behind him as he possibly can. But his heart demands he should throw himself into the ocean and find the source to why his emotions hurt so much. And he cannot disobey, the mind is too beaten from the flood from his heart to have that capability. It scares Ienzo, feels so out of control, and forced to obey his heat's command, but like Zexion said; control is nothing but an illusion. "It might break me, but I need to go home and face the grave mistake I helped in creating," He tells Riku in a quiet voice. "I can't turn my back on this." 

Must give Ienzo points for not running away from his problems; that's something Riku wishes he could've done when he realized his great mistake. "You need some help?" 

Ienzo laughs, it's pained and trembling, and when the young man looks at him, a great fear is showing in those sharp blue eyes. "I would greatly appreciate it…"

Riku smiles weakly and is starting to see that this former Nobody might teach him a valuable lesson as well. He offers Ienzo his hand, the older boy blinks, at first confused, hesitates but takes it.

Right that moment, Mickey returns and is happy to see the two are getting to know one another. He voices this and hands the two the food he brought in the restored shops of Hollow Bastion, Mickey asks the seemly recovered Ienzo. "What happened to you and the other apprentices?"

But from how he is struggling against that floodgate from those memories- the great mistake. Ienzo knows he cannot get into that subject without a severe mental breakdown. "I- I'm sorry…" He whispers, the mere thought of what he and the others have done is threatening to drag him back down into the darkness of his pain "I'm not ready…" he feels a hand on his shoulder, meeting his eyes is a sad but understanding small king.

"Take the time you need, Ienzo."

It's strange to be called by his true name again, but Ienzo is glad to be him again, even if it came with the giant inconvenience of a pained heart.  
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_It's not safe staying at Castle Oblivion anymore, not only because of that beast that is continuously stalking about in the shadows, never showing itself yet always reminding him it is there and is not happy they are inside the castle. That and the fact it is only a matter of time before the Organization will return and screw up his plans of revenge. Most of his former apprentices have been facing the blade of vengeance, paid the ultimate prize for their betrayal. But they cannot stay in Castle Oblivion, it's simply too risky._

_Diz starts searching for a new and much safer location for Naminé to work on restoring Sora's memories.  
He searches for a good hiding place in one of the worlds that lies in the in-between. These worlds are strangely immune to the darkness, and only a severe invasion can harm such a world. Diz, unfortunately, learned about that when the in-between world he was supposed to be its ruler got overrun by Heartless, created by his apprentices._

_Suddenly, while walking through a market place of one of these in-between worlds, he comes across a man, one who seems to be the late twenties, but the look in those latte-brown eyes makes Diz think of an old man who has seen more than he would've liked. This man has long, steel-blue hair that is both held away from the very scarred face with a blueberry headband and kept together at the end of a band, making it into a ponytail. He has a cornflower blue band of cloth folded around the shoulder, egged coated in gold. Underneath is a light grey tunic with long sleeves, a leather brown belt is holding a light grey-blue and silky drape, which like the cloth on the shoulders, has golden lines at the edges. The pants are dark steel-blue, folded above the brown boots that have metal around the ankles and underneath the sole. It's not something that makes him stand out in this bit old fashion world Diz is checking out and yet… something about him is not like the others._

_"I offer you a place of sanctuary, in the world of the never-setting sun, a mansion that will allow you peace of work from those you seek vengeance against." This man speaks, catching Diz off guard. How was this man supposed to know about his thirst for vengeance and the outside world?_

_"Who are you?"_

_But the man does not answer his question; instead he walks away. "Seek the mansion bearing the mark of the unicorn." He spoke before disappearing into the streets of this harsh but beautiful world._

_Diz hesitates but does travel to the world this elusive man spoke about. He knows what world it is; Twilight Town.  
He found the place, it's a large mansion hidden inside the forest and getting the sense that he won't get a better place to hide and yet be near enough to keep an eye on the Organization, Diz decides to use the mansion this mysterious stranger suggested.  
He sure hopes he made the right choice._  
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Following Ienzo back to Hollow Bastion, Riku is keeping a close eye on former Nobody. Ienzo is getting worse by each step they take inside this destroyed city, sees more and more of the havoc Ansem, and the Heartless Maleficent commanded to attack this place.  
When Ienzo got too upset at what he saw and beginning to go into another mental breakdown, Mickey made him sit down beside what Riku think should've been a water fountain. Without a word, both he and Mickey take a seat beside the sobbing Ienzo, giving him the time to recover from his great heartache.

"I knew it was bad… but not like this…" Ienzo muffled voice can be head behind his arms that are folded over his head, the whole body trembling from the emotions raging through his body. 

Mickey puts a hand on his shaking back. "It might look bad, but Hollow Bastion can be repaired." He assures the young man, thinking he broke down at the horrid sight of what has become of the once beautiful and full of light world.

But Riku thinks it's not the world itself that got Ienzo this affected, he thinks back to when Zexion called him out for his action towards his own homeworld and he realizes why that speech felt so genuine. It's not the world's destruction... it's all the people that got hurt. "You saw yourself in me." Mickey gives him a confused look, while Ienzo… the young man moves his head just enough so the left eye can be seen. Grief and regret are brimming out from it, the same emotions Riku felt back when he truly realized how many people he has hurt by opening the door to his world's heart. They are the same on that part, both did something terrible in pursuit of a goal. Let it leave one's homeworld or… whatever that made Ienzo and the other apprentices open this world's door to darkness. There's no part past the guilt, but at least there is a way to soften that blade. "It won't go away, but you can use it to do better. For you," he nods towards a group of passing people, trying to get things up and running again in the ruins of this city. "and for them."

Ienzo follows Riku's eyes, he sees survivors. It's clear they are struggling to make ends meet, which is understandable. Not much food or proper shelter among piles of rubble and danger is everywhere with Heartless still roaming about. But watching them still trying to get this world back on its feet, it reminds him of how Ansem often spoke about helping people, which was what their research was for at the start. At some point it went wrong, Ienzo is not entirely sure when it happened, only that it led to Radiant Garden's destruction. A new emotion, one he does not recognizes, but thanks to it; he knows what to do. "You're right," He gets back on his feet, turning to Riku and the king, not seeing their surprise from how determined he has become. "Ansem the Wise wanted to help people, and I will respect that wish by doing whatever I can to restore my home." and with those words, he walks up towards the castle. The pain is still great, but that new emotion is swallowing it whole, giving little room to feel sorry for himself.

Reaching the castle, strong Heartless attacks, but none of this small group are in the mood humoring those filthy things. Riku and Mickey attacks with their blades, and Ienzo offers his support by throwing spells at the Heartless. With them taken care of, the young apprentice hurries into the library. Mickey and Riky follow into the labyrinth of a library. It's apparent Ienzo has been living here, for that one walks straight to whatever he's looking for.

"Ah, exactly where I left it." Ienzo smiles and grabs a chestnut red book with golden metal at each edge, in the middle, there are a heart symbol and the other side, an arcane circle. A quick check on the pages and relief washes over him. "Not a scratch," He sighs, so glad his most prized possession in the form of this spellbook has survived the destruction. This book was what gave rise to Zexion's Lexicon, but that black book only got the spells he could've remembered back when he created the other spellbook. With his original book, the Arcanum in hand, he turns to the other two. "Now I have my spellbook, I should be able to handle the Heartless roaming the castle." He hesitates but thinks after he has sat up a proper place to rest, he should try and help out the people who have survived the destruction and invasion of Heartless. "I will stay here and do my part in restoring Radiant Garden back to its former glory." He eyes Riku, well aware that only a few years younger boy has a dark history with his home. "I know this castle has left a bad imprint on you, but if you ever need a place to rest or if I can offer you any sort of assistance. The doors are open," Eyeing the small king. "for both of you. It's the least I can do for having helped me through this strenuous trial my return brought." Ienzo is certain he couldn't have come to this decision without their support, and for that, he is truly grateful. 

Doubt he will return here for a good while, but Riku thinks it won't be awfully bad now Ienzo is calling the shots of Hollow Bastion castle. Riku nods, saying to the young man, "I'll keep that in mind." and with a handshake to a former enemy, now an ally, Riku leaves.

Mickey shakes hand with Ienzo as well, wishing him luck with his heart's mission and; "I hope the next time we meet, you can tell me what happened." The young apprentice smiles weakly but Mickey somehow doubts that conversation will happen any time soon from how much pain there is in Ienzo's eyes at the mere mention. But Mickey can wait. "Take care Ienzo." And Mickey hurries after Riku.

"You too and…" Ienzo puts a hand on his chest, even after the beatings it gave him- thanks to Riku and Mickey- He no longer has the urge to rid himself from it. "Thank you." He is starting to see how much he truly has been missing. Let it be good or bad, he will accept everything his heart throws at him. Just like Riku accepted both light and darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ienzo's spellbook is an old idea of mine. The design hasn't changed much, only the name of this book. I've always liked that spellbook, so of course, I was going to include it.**
> 
> **This is the end of Book 2, and now the changes are going to be more prominent, and the books are getting longer. You will see what I mean in the next book, which is 385/2 days.**
> 
> **Now to the question, do you guys want more chapters involving Riku in the next book? Right now, I have only a very few chapters about him, but if you want, I can easily add a few more.  
> **  
>  Tell me what you think. 
> 
> **Until then, I will see you in the next book of 385/2 Days.**


End file.
